And I wish I had spoken up sooner.

But if I erase everything, I erase you, and I would never do that.”

Paige rested her head against my shoulder.

“I used to think leaving meant you stopped loving the people you left.”

“Sometimes leaving means you finally love yourself enough to stop accepting what hurts you.”

We sorted the photographs into an album.

We kept the happy ones without inventing a happy marriage to explain them.

We kept the difficult memories without letting them swallow the rest.