When Leah got home, she found me sitting at the kitchen table, helping our son, Max, with his homework, just like any other night.

She opened her mouth, like she wanted to explain something.

I just shook my head and gave her a small, tired smile.

“Don’t,” I said.

“I already know.”

I’ve known you don’t love me for a long time, so you don’t have to explain. It must be exhausting.

Clearly, she didn’t understand what I meant.

She let out a long sigh of relief.

That night, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

I picked up my phone one last time and pulled up her secret Reddit account.

The post was now flooded with comments from our friends, gawking at the drama.

And there was a new reply from Leo.

“Knew you were waiting for me. Glad I never gave up.”

I thought for a long time.

Then, under Leo’s comment, I typed my own reply.

“You didn’t give up. But I did.”

Leah.

It took me seven years, but I’m finally giving up on you.

Before the sun came up, I pulled out the divorce papers I’d prepared the day I first found her Reddit post.

Then I went to my son’s room to get him ready to leave.

Max was already dressed, with his backpack ready by the door.

His maturity startled me.

He looked at me with a calm that was far beyond his years.

“I’ve had a bag packed every single day for the past year, Dad,” he said.

“I was just waiting for this day to come.”

“She doesn’t really love us, does she?”

Look at that.

How pathetic.

Even our child could see it.

And all this time, I thought things had been getting better over the last year.

She’d started telling me where she was going before she left.

She’d even started going to Max’s parent-teacher conferences.

Sometimes, in bed, she would whisper my name with something that sounded like passion.

I was so arrogant, I actually thought she was starting to love me.

But I was just fooling myself.

The moment Leo got his divorce, I had already lost everything.

I grabbed my suitcase with one hand and took my son’s hand with the other.

I took one last look at her, sleeping peacefully in our bed, and I smiled.

“See?” I thought. “I left after all.”

“This round, you lose.”

After I left, she didn’t contact me for the entire day.

It wasn't until the next evening that she finally realized I wasn’t coming back.

That's when my phone finally rang.