Overlooked Wife, Officially Done

For eight years, Judy Jolliffe folded every time her husband Dylan Leveson dangled divorce like a threat. She begged him three hundred and four times to take her dying father on one last trip out to sea; he bailed, leaving her alone on the shore while he played Romeo in the highlands with Millie Stone, his forever flame. When Judy finally says the word divorce herself, Dylan doesn't believe she means it.

After her father's funeral, Judy collapses from low blood sugar and wakes in a hospital bed with a mild concussion. Dylan never calls. Millie posts a photo of her hand in his—wearing the wedding ring Judy gave him, with the matching band on Millie's finger. Judy texts him to sign the papers; he answers that Millie is sick and needs him, and tells her to wait at home.

She goes home to a husband who remembers neither her fall nor their anniversary, and who still expects her to cook. Judy has spent eight years as the stand-in for a woman who left. This time, the first time she says it is the last.