At 2:00 a.m., My Husband Thought I Was Asleep While He Emptied Our Safe to Run Off With His Mistress. Before Leaving, He Kissed Me and Whispered, “Poor Audrey. You Never Saw This Coming.” Hours Later He Sent a Photo From the Airport. I Replied With Four Words That Made Him Call Me Immediately.

I kept them as instruments.

People still asked, sometimes carefully, whether I hated him.

The honest answer was smaller than hate.

I understood him.

He had wanted a life that looked like authorship over a company he did not own.

He had wanted a witness who would call that ambition love.

When I stopped being that witness, he tried to leave with the props.

I had loved him.