Brenda had decided it would, in writing, long before I walked down that hallway.

The only thing I ever actually controlled was what I did after — and after, at last, I did the right thing.

Chapter 14 — The New Place

Brenda was released on bail with a restraining order barring her from coming near me or Rosie, and Brian moved out of her house the same week, and my older sister, Lauren, drove down to help me pack.

I will remember that day for the rest of my life — not for anything dramatic, but for how ordinary it was, how light I felt carrying boxes out of a house I had been afraid in for two years, my sister making terrible jokes to make me laugh, Rosie asleep in her carrier in the sun on the porch.