My Wife Woke in a Hospital Bed, Saw the Tattoo I’d Hidden for Four Years, and Instead of Asking Me to Make Them Disappear, She Said the Six Words That Set Me Free: “No Bodies. Ruin Them in the Light.”

“To you?

Never.

Not once in my life, and not ever.” I set my phone gently on her blanket, where she could reach it.

“To the people who did this to you — I could be.

I have been, to people who deserved less than they do.

But I won’t cross that line unless you ask me to.

And I don’t think you’re going to ask me to.

I think you’re better than the man I used to be.