“Is Gregor’s new kidney working?” And he softened and said yes, from the first hour, beautifully.

“Then I’ve done what I came to do,” I said, and there was nothing left for him to argue with, because it was true.

Before I left the floor I walked, slowly, IV pole and all, around the green curtain to my husband’s side of the room.

He was asleep, his phone rising and falling on his chest, his expensive watch on the tray beside him.

I did not wake him.

I did not leave a note; I had spent twenty-two years explaining myself, and I was done.