Sabine nodded, unable to say more. Her voice felt like it was caught somewhere behind the tightness in her chest.
“And Adair,” Dr. Pie turned her attention to him. “You initiated this?”
“I did,” he said. His voice was low but firm. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I know I can’t undo them but I want to understand them. I want to understandherand I want to be better…even if it’s too late to fix us.”
Something in Sabine flinched. That last part. Even if it’s too late. Dr. Pie gave a slow, knowing nod. Then she finally sat down, legs crossed at the ankle, hands folded neatly in her lap.
“All right,” she said, her voice settling between them like a weightless net. “Let’s talk.” She leaned back just slightly in her chair, folding one leg over the other. Her notepad rested on the arm beside her, though she didn’t reach for it yet. “Let’s begin with you, Mr. Dayne, you asked for this session and I’m curious, why now? Why here? Why with yourex-wife?”
The title landed deliberately. Her tone was easy, almost casual but the choice of words wasn’t. She said "ex-wife" deliberately, watching both of their reactions.
Adair didn’t react, but Sabine noticed the brief tick of his jaw. He hated that word.Ex-wife. He always had. He looked over at Sabine for a moment. Her arms were crossed, her eyes unreadable. Then he shifted his gaze back to Dr. Pie and spoke.
“Because I should’ve done this a long time ago.”
Dr. Pie waited. No pen. No nods.
Adair cleared his throat.
“We never had a chance to slow down. From the moment we got together…it was constant movement. School. Work. Babies. Grief. Success. Everything was just happening. Fast and I thought—” he stopped. “I thought if I kept providing, kept building something, I was being a good man. A good husband. A good father. I didn’t understand back then that presence wasn’t about being in the house. It was about being withher.”
Sabine blinked slowly listening to every word.Feelingevery word.
“I let too many things go unsaid. Or said the wrong way. I avoided hard conversations. Or made them harder than they had to be and now we’re here. I’m not proud of that but I’m here because I finally realize...I didn’t lose her over one fight, or one betrayal. I lost her because I didn’t protect her. I didn’t protectus. I didn’t protect our family. I didn’t listen. I didn’t even fight the way I should have.”
Dr. Pie nodded slowly, keeping her gaze calm and open. “And what do you want from her now?”
“I want to repair what I can. Apologize for what I broke. Not just to her face, but in front of someone who can help mehearher this time because I didn’t listen when she needed me. I didn’t believe her when she said she was lonely. I didn’t believe her when she said she was drowning and when she gave birth alone to our daughter…” his throat nearly closed. “I wasn’t just absent. I was gone and she deserved more than that. So much,” he cleared his throat. “So fucking much more than that.”
Silence filled the room.
Sabine sat perfectly still, every part of her face composed but inside, her heart was raging. Raging and cracking and thudding all at once. Because she had said those things. Had begged him to listen and now here he was, sitting across from her, finally saying them back.
Dr. Pie turned her attention to Sabine. Still gentle and unhurried.
“I want to acknowledge how hard it can be to sit here and hear those words, Sabine,” she said. “You’ve carried a lot of pain and right now, I’m going to ask you to continue listening, for just a little longer because sometimes, the most powerful thing we can do in the beginning…is allow the other person to speak the truth aloud.”
Sabine said nothing but her throat tightened even more.
“What do you feel when you look at her now?” Dr. Pie looked back to Adair and he finally let his gaze land on the love of his life again.
“I see the same woman I met at that party in college,” he said softly. “The one who couldn’t dance for shit but lit the whole room up anyway. I see the woman who gave me a son andrisked everything for our family. I see the woman I didn’t protect enough. I see someone I’m stilldeeplyin love with…even if she never says it back to me again.”
Sabine exhaled sharply and turned her face away, but her hands trembled slightly where they rested in her lap. Dr. Pie gave that moment its space. Then she finally picked up her notepad, flipped to a blank page, and scribbled something small before looking at Sabine again.
“Would you be willing to share what came up for you hearing all of that?” she asked, no pressure in her voice, just care.
Sabine swallowed, eyes still averted. “I don’t know yet,” she said. “But I’m here. So that has to count for something.”
“Sabine, I want to remind you that you’re in full control here. If at any point this feels unproductive or unsafe, we can pause. Do you feel comfortable enough to proceed?”
“I’m here,” Sabine repeated. Pie nodded again, then sat back, folding her hands.
“I appreciate that honesty and since this is our first time meeting, I want to step back a bit. I understand that the two of you were married, and that there was a separation. But to guide this process well, I need to understand the scope of what we’re healing from. Could you help me understand, what was the rupture? The moment, or moments, that changed everything. Adair, Sabine…I’d like us to begin bynamingwhat happened.”
The air in the room tightened. Sabine blinked. Once. Twice and Adair’s jaw clenched. For minutes neither spoke until…
“We stopped talking.”