“That sounds exactly like the man I’ve been married to.”

I almost smiled until I saw that she was crying again.

“I needed a husband,” she said.

“I didn’t need another investor.”

We remained there for another hour, speaking without the careful language we had used for years.

Neither of us promised that one conversation would undo the damage.

When she finally went upstairs, she paused on the landing and said, “Please don’t file the papers tomorrow.”

“I won’t.”