Marcus did not give me that life.

But he did, in his cruelty and his blindness, step out of its doorway.

And for that one accidental kindness, buried inside the worst thing he ever did to me, I find that I am, at last, genuinely and without irony, grateful.

He was right.

Leaving me was the smartest thing he ever did.

He simply never understood which of us it was smart for.