Prologue

You ever have one of those moments? Where your fingers go numb, you can't breathe, and you suddenly feel as if the whole world is closing in on you, like it's slipping right between your fingers?

The worst thing about it was that I suspected nothing. Rufus and I had been happily married for eight years and had the most beautiful daughter, Marlene. She was six at the time I found out about his affair. Rufus had been secretly courting my best friend, Elena for a year and a half. She was the one who finally came out and told me. If you've never been through that, having to listen to your best friend tell you that she has been sleeping with your husband, you will never understand what I went through. First, you feel cold, as if someone injected ice cold water straight into your bloodstream. Then, everything goes silent. You can't think, feel. It hurts to breathe. I remember staring at her, unable to move. She didn't even look upset, she looked almost... proud. I could have hit her were it not for my inability to move. And then the fog clears. Your hearing stops being fuzzy and the adrenaline surges through your body, racing to your heart. I remember how livid I was. Flailing and screeching at her. I eventually managed to get her out of my house and it wasn't until then that the reality of her words hit me.

My marriage was over.

When Rufus got home from work that day I had already started packing. Luckily, Marlene was staying over at a friend's house and she didn't have to witness the fight we had or, at least, not the worst of it. I was upstairs in our bedroom when he called to me, announcing his arrival. I started to shake. Anger pulsed through me like an electric current, speeding through my body. I continued to slam my clothes into a suitcase as I heard him ascend the stairs. "Tifa, I'm ho-"He paused, I couldn't even turn to look at him, "What are you doing, Honey?" I gritted my teeth and continued to throw clothes into the suitcase. I walked past him and down the stairs, not daring to look at him. I went into the crawl space and found numerous boxes and brought them into the living room. He walked up to me, "Tifa!" He exclaimed, grabbing me by the arm and forcing me to look at him. "What is this? What are you doing with the boxes?"

"I don't know, Rufus... What are you doing sleeping with my best friend?" I ripped my arm from his grasp and he looked at me, stricken. I crossed my arms, "The charade is over, Rufus. She came and told me." I felt my stomach clench. After hours of arguing and negotiating we finally came to a conclusion. Marlene and I were going to go back to my hometown and stay with my parents. Apparently, Rufus had to 'search himself' to find out what he really wanted. So I continued to pack and Marlene and I left within the week, with broken spirits, and bleeding hearts.