One of them begged for it over a grave.

The other one just showed up, every day, and stayed, and never asked to be thanked, and so became the thing the other one only wanted the title of.

Chapter 16 — The Standing Order

People sometimes hear a piece of this story and call it a tragedy, the wife thrown out on a lie, the ten stolen years.

I understand why.

But I have never been able to hold it that way, and I have tried.