When Gregor was careless, I made it come out right.

When he was thoughtless with people, I smoothed it after him.

When he neglected a thing, I quietly tended it so the neglect never cost him anything.

A man can go a very long time believing he is competent and beloved and owed the world, if there is a woman behind him erasing the evidence to the contrary as fast as he generates it.

I had been erasing that evidence my whole marriage, and the moment I stopped, the truth of him was simply there, in plain view, for the first time — the house that was never his, the mistress who wanted a lifestyle and not a man, the friends who had always been my friends, the ordinary daily competence that turned out to have been mine all along.

I did not have to punish him.