Because he’d spent years convincing me I couldn’t survive without him.
I reached across the space between us and took my daughter’s hand.
“I should’ve chosen you sooner.”
Sarah squeezed my fingers.
“You chose me eventually.”
I looked down at Pauline sleeping peacefully against my chest.
For years, I believed keeping quiet was how I kept my family together.
I had been wrong.
My silence hadn’t been glue.
It had been a leash.
And the moment I finally stopped calling control love, I understood something Kevin had worked very hard to make me forget.
I wasn’t helpless.
I wasn’t trapped.
And I wasn’t nowhere without him.
I chose my daughter.
And somewhere inside that choice, after years of disappearing inside my own marriage, I finally chose myself too.
