It was a hard thing to watch.

But it was also, I understood, necessary and even in its way merciful, because a person propped up forever by another’s hidden sacrifice never gets the chance to learn to stand, and I was done being the invisible foundation of lives built to hold me in contempt.

Chapter 17 — Daniel Left Me

Karla missed her first mortgage payment.

Then her second.

By the third month, her lender issued a formal notice of default, and she called me one evening, sobbing into the phone.