They were not a separation.

I did not say I was leaving him and I did not say the marriage was over, and if I had meant either of those things I would have said them, because by then I had got quite good at saying things in that room.

What they were was a claim on the timetable.

Because that is the thing that had been taken from me, more than the morning and more even than the promise.

For ten years every single date in my life had been set by somebody else.