He still believed that our whole marriage could be repaired by re-staging its worst scene with a kinder ending — that if he could just get me back to that gate and not abandon me, the damage would reverse.

He did not understand that I did not need the scene re-shot.

“I don’t need to go back to the place where you broke me,” I said gently, “to prove to myself that I’ve healed.

Healing doesn’t work that way.

Healing is walking somewhere new.” His eyes filled.

“I did love you, truly,” he said.