As I prepare to welcome my baby into the world, my heart is torn between joy for the new life I’m bringing and sorrow for the marriage I’ve decided to leave behind. My name is Mary, and this is how one devastating night changed everything.

Daniel and I had been married for five years. To anyone looking in from the outside, we had a perfect life: a loving relationship, a home we were proud of, and a baby on the way. But beneath the surface, there were cracks I hadn’t fully acknowledged until they split wide open.

I’ve always had a deep-rooted fear of fire. When I was 17, a house fire destroyed my childhood home, taking with it everything we owned and our beloved dog, Grampa. My parents and I escaped with our lives, but the trauma lingered—every smell of smoke, every blaring siren was a haunting reminder of that night.