I want to be precise about this, because it is the heart of everything, and because Marcus never did understand it, not that night and perhaps not ever.

I had not reported him because he cheated on me.

I had not investigated him because he had humiliated me, or emptied our account, or told me I would be nothing without him.

If those had been my reasons, then Marcus would have been right; it would have been revenge, personal and vengeful and small, and I would have been, in my own way, still tethered to him, still letting the man who hurt me set the terms of my life.

But that was not what had happened.