It’s official

I’m up to the part of the book I hate — the dreaded “black moment” where I have to break my characters up just so they can get to their Happily Ever After.

I have two problems with this:

1. I like my characters. I love that they’re together and happy. I don’t want to torture them by breaking them apart.
2. I’m not quite sure how to get them there. The heroine, having been abused by an ex, has issues with men, especially men of the hero’s size (tall, dark and handsome). Of course he can’t actually hit her, or no one would like him. (Plus, it’d be out of character.) But she has to feel threatened enough to walk out on him.

Aargh! This is the hard part!