I had been solid for fifteen years, and he had never once reached for me until the water was at his chin.

I did not hate him for it anymore.

I simply had nowhere left in me for him to hold onto.

He had used up his five minutes, and there would not be another, and the terrible gift I gave him in that conference room was to say so plainly and then stop speaking, because he was no longer a person I owed an explanation.

Chapter 23 — The Fallout

The fallout was swift and total.