“Not to have to go back,” I said.

“And after that?”

I stared at her.

“I haven’t thought that far.”

“Try.”

I went home and wrote down what a future might look like: a small apartment with sunlight, work that mattered, a savings account no one could access without my consent, and maybe a garden.

I didn’t write that I wanted Dennis ruined.

I wrote that I wanted to be free.