one less useless thing for her to haul to the curb later. But when Mike finally left, slamming the door and dropping the keys on the entry table, she burst into tears. That was it. She was alone in the apartment now.
Her whole long life suddenly felt like fog. What had all those years of homemaking and trying and pretending been for?
She cried for a while, then something harder took over. Anger. Clean, clarifying anger. She needed to get rid of anything that reminded her of the past or of the man who had betrayed her. So she started tossing things into a pile.
Out went the bedroom curtains, an old throw blanket, some dull books, a few decorative vases. She made several trips to the dumpsters outside, lugging heavy trash bags. Last in line was the rug.
It was a large old wall rug from the bedroom, one that had been in the apartment long before Mike. It had belonged to her grandmother. Anna had thought about getting rid of it many times over the years but never had the heart.
It was supposedly a real Persian rug, and besides, it had belonged to Grandma. But that night, in a fit of determination, she yanked it off the wall with the hooks still attached. It was unbelievably heavy, dusty, and awkward.
Anna realized she had no strength left to drag it downstairs. So she rolled it up and shoved it into the hall closet. She decided she’d deal with it later, after she rested.
In her mind, though, the urge for a full reset was burning bright. She fell asleep thinking that tomorrow she would tear down the old wallpaper and start a full renovation. She was on vacation anyway. If not now, when?
By morning, the destructive energy had cooled a little. She decided not to strip the whole apartment at once. Better to start with the kitchen. That was where her daughter found her when she showed up unexpectedly.
Polly had already heard from her father that the divorce was final. Instead of calling, she came in person—and brought Daniel with her for backup. “Mom, you and Dad always seemed so good together,” Polly said, blinking in confusion.
“How did this happen all of a sudden?”
“Honey,” Anna said calmly, stirring wallpaper paste, “it didn’t happen all of a sudden. It happened a long time ago. We just kept it from you.”
And then she told her daughter the truth. All of it. Polly was stunned. Daniel was too. He had honestly believed his in-laws had a solid marriage.
After the shock wore off, the young couple rolled up their sleeves and joined the renovation. In one week, Anna’s old apartment was transformed. She and Mike had never managed to do what Polly and Daniel helped her do in a matter of days.
They hung fresh wallpaper in every room, laid new flooring in the hallway, touched up paint, refreshed the ceilings, and even had stylish new interior doors installed. For the doors, they hired professionals.
The place turned out beautiful. Polly and Daniel practically crawled out of there from exhaustion. They had come expecting to mediate between her parents and ended up working like a home-improvement crew.
Polly decided that if her mother felt good in the newly refreshed apartment, then that was what mattered. Her father, apparently, was doing just fine in his younger household too. Still, deep down, she grieved the family she thought she had.
And Anna? Outwardly, she was calm. But inside, the emptiness kept growing. The realization that she was forty-five and alone stung more than she liked to admit.
Now, sitting on the rattling bus, she thought back to the salon chatter. Tomorrow everyone would be celebrating. Everyone would be getting flowers, brunch, phone calls, attention. And she felt like she had somehow stepped out of the stream of life.
When she got off at her stop, she decided to go into the grocery store and buy herself something nice. If no one else was going to make the day special, she would. She got carried away and filled her cart with far more than one person needed.
At checkout she needed two large bags. As she struggled out of the store, she scolded herself. What on earth had she bought all this for?
