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Their house had been in Everett, and despite all the crap she’d given him about money, Kiersten wasn’t vindictive She knew he couldn’t afford to keep up et an apartone back to her parents’ house in Southie, and they’d put the Everett house up for sale Any equity would be split between them

Michael sighed, feeling a weight compress his chest

He’d never understood most of Kiersten’s complaints but at the base of them was her fore off having kids with her

At the ti his best as a husband After that ill-tis between the him over the years came from that belief—that he was distant with her

That he didn’t love her the way she loved him

/> Seeing his reaction to Dahlia—finding out who she was—it was the straw that broke the camel’s back

They’d gone ho, and Kiersten packed a suitcase and left

The weight tightened like a vise around his ribs, and he squeezed his hands around the steering wheel Of all the places to bump into Dahlia McGuire, it would be on fuckin’ vacation

Seeing her had et over it like he did her leaving in the first place, but the ered The stricken look on her face kept replaying over and over in his head

She had to be as beautiful as he reotten bitter and old-looking No, that would be too fair His own bitterness twisted in his chest Michael hadn’t even known it was still there He’d thoughtdoith her, meant he’d moved on

Clearly, he hadn’t

But Michael would not make the same mistake twice

The woman Michael had fallen in love with had died when Dillon died, and the person left behind in her body was a coho’d proven she didn’t love him the way he had loved her

Michael pulled up to the triple-decker that had been converted into apartments and stared up at the second floor where his small one-bedroo in a fuckin’ bachelor pad, starting over again

He thought of Bronson and Kiersten His asn’t a stupid woht she was up-front about how she felt But if she was now dating Nick after telling Michael for