When I signed the initial petition, I felt sadness rather than victory.

I had married Vance because I loved him.

I was leaving because love did not erase the night he chose not to come.

I placed the signed papers into Ruth’s folder and returned home to feed Oliver.

My life was no longer waiting for my husband’s response.

It was already moving forward.

PART 20

There was another letter I wanted Warren to read, but I waited until we had spent enough ordinary days together that he knew me as a person rather than a miracle from the past.