I wanted them gone, off my accounts and out of my house and no longer able to reach into my life and help themselves — and the destruction was simply what happened when I stopped holding them up.

A thing that has been leaning its whole weight on you tends to fall when you finally step aside.

That isn’t cruelty.

It’s physics.

There is a soft knock, and Darcy comes in with two coffees and sets one on my desk.

“Happy Monday,” she says.

“The county clerk confirmed it this morning.

Every judgment against Camden is satisfied, and your divorce decree is recorded.