One month before we were supposed to move back to Boston, my husband Sebastian quietly changed our job applications. His best friend Nate called to talk some sense into him. "You secretly accepted the position at Stanford Medical Center just because Lilith Valentine is in Palo Alto? Sebastian, are you out of your mind? Your wife Audrey already has the Chief Medical Officer offer from Avalon Biopharma in Boston. Weren't you two supposed to go back to the East Coast together?" "Didn't you both spend all those years in the Harvard MD-PhD program so you could finally crack that rare disease target the foundations couldn't touch?" Sebastian shook his head. "Audrey loves me. Once she knows my decision, she'll come with me to California." "Lilith is all alone out there. She needs me. Avalon will always have opportunities. But Lilith only has me." I stood outside our apartment door. Ice spread through my chest. I turned and walked away without a sound. If he wanted to chase his so-called love, then I would continue down my own path. One month later, my plane landed at Logan International Airport. His call came through, frantic. "Audrey, are you in California yet?" I stared at the bare oaks outside the terminal, Boston's late-autumn wind cutting through them. A storm churned inside me. "I've been here for a while." *** I stopped in front of the glass doors at Avalon Biopharma's campus. The conversation I'd overheard a month ago was still fresh in my mind. Nate Miller's voice came through again. "Sebastian, are you really sure about this? At least tell Audrey in person. What if she genuinely doesn't know you pulled the applications..." Sebastian shook his head. "She's talked about that Avalon position for years. She's more invested in it than anyone. There's no way she doesn't know I withdrew our joint application." "And if I tell her face to face, she'll blow up. You know her temper. Why deal with that?" Nate ......
