And now the house was revealing that it had owned him all along, and was walking out, and he felt the loss of it as love because he had never learned the difference.

I understood this with a clarity that surprised me, and the understanding was the last thing I needed to be completely free of him.

You cannot be wounded by the withdrawal of a love that was only ever appetite.

His I still love you landed on me like a stranger’s.

There was simply no longer anyone home for it to reach.

And it was there, at that exact moment, that the night stopped being the story I had planned and became a different one.