But I did not need to make the house unsafe or frighten children to prove a point.

I needed to change my life.

Those are different goals.

The day Daniel signed our agreement, he asked whether he could still call me.

I think about that question often.

My son had become so accustomed to connecting our relationship with practical dependence that removing the dependence seemed to threaten the love itself.

I wish he’d never felt that fear.

But perhaps I contributed to it.