The moment I said it out loud to Daniel, it was never an obligation, the spell broke, for me if not for him, because I heard myself name the truth: that everything I had given, I had given freely, and that anything given freely can be, freely, no longer given.

They had no claim on me.

They never had.

They had only convinced me, for four years, that they did, and the convincing had done all the work that no actual obligation ever could have.

Chapter 8 — Pack Your Clothes

I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out a thick folder, one I had prepared that very morning with the help of my attorney, who was also my closest friend from college, a sharp and formidable woman named Paula.

I slid it across the glass surface of the table.