She walked past him without a glance.
Dean’s stomach flipped.
“Do you want tea?” he called after her, following. “I’ll make you some tea. I thought… I mean, I figured we’d talk.”
Fiona turned the corner into the bedroom.
Dean stopped short in the doorway as she pulled a suitcase from the back of the closet. She didn’t hesitate. Didn’t ask. Just opened drawers, started folding.
Not talking.Packing.
“Wait—what are you doing?” Dean asked, the words coming out as half a laugh. “You just got here.”
Still, she didn’t answer.
“Fiona,” he said more firmly, stepping into the room. “Seriously. You disappear for days and now you’re just… what, grabbing your stuff like this is a dorm move-out?”
She zipped one side of the bag. “I’m taking what’s mine.”
Dean’s chest tightened. “So that’s it? You’re just leaving?”
“I’m not staying,” she said, voice even.
Dean felt like he was watching this happen to someone else—some other man whose wife was methodically dismantling their life together. The sounds in the room went muffled, like he was underwater.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, come on. This is just a fight. It got blown out of proportion. We can work through this.”
Fiona walked to the bathroom, collected her toiletries with surgical precision.
“Fi,” he said again, softer this time. “Look—I know I messed up. But you’re not perfect either. You overreacted. You shut down. You’re not even willing to have a conversation.”
That made her pause. She turned toward him, eyes tired but steady. “You honestly think I’m overreacting?”
Dean felt himself floating above the scene, watching his own mouth move, hearing his own voice like it belonged to a stranger. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real.
Dean’s mouth opened, then closed.
She nodded once, like she expected that.
He ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus. You’re seriously going to burn our whole marriage down over a few jokes? Some captions? It wasn’t serious. I made peoplelaugh.”
“You made me feel like a fool,” she said quietly.
“Peoplelikedyou. The account was popular because you’re?—”
“Because I was stupid,” she cut in. “Because I trusted you. Because I told you things that mattered to me, and you made it into a joke.”
“It wasn’t malicious,” Dean said, too fast. “You have to let me explain the nuances of it to you.”
She didn’t answer him.
The silence stretched between them like a chasm. Dean felt like he was falling, weightless and terrified.
“So that’s it? You’re not even going to talk with me—you’re just… done?”
Fiona folded her last shirt and zipped the bag. “You don’t get to humiliate someone and then demand they stay to make you feel better about it.”
She moved past him, pulling the suitcase behind her.
