“Just leave, then!” he shouted after me, and there was panic under the fury, though he didn’t know it yet.

“Let’s see how long you last out there without my money!

In less than a week you’ll be crawling back on your knees, begging me to forgive you!” I gave him no answer.

I stepped out into the night air, in my wedding dress, with my suitcase, and I felt — this is the strange part, the part I have never been able to explain to anyone who wasn’t there — I felt free.

Lighter than I had felt in two years.