“He forgot to hang up. I heard my fiancé whisper, ‘After the wedding, she’ll sign anything.’ I packed my kids at 2 a.m. and left. The next morning I saw the ‘document’—and realized what I escaped.

“Just make sure the wedding happens,” she warned. “Once she’s your wife, we can deal with her attitude. If she’s stubborn, we’ll remind her she has nowhere else to go.”

My heart pounded so loud I thought they might hear it through the call.

Owen’s voice came back, confident. “She won’t leave. Not with kids. She needs me.”

I looked toward the hallway where my children slept, and something inside me went cold and clear.

They didn’t need him.