Chapter 14 - THE WOMAN WHO WALKED AWAY
Ten years after Daniel threw my suitcase into the driveway, I returned to the old neighborhood.
The house was gone.
A new building stood there.
I parked outside.
For a moment, I remembered everything.
The blonde woman.
The suitcase.
Daniel's voice.
You're a parasite.
I smiled.
He had been wrong.
I had never been a parasite.
I had been the foundation holding everything together.
My daughter sat beside me in the car.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Why are we here?”
“I wanted to remember.”
“Remember what?”
“The woman I used to be.”
She looked at me.
“Do you miss her?”
I thought about it.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because she didn't know her own worth.”
My daughter smiled.
“You do now.”
“Yes.”
She hugged me.
My father called from the sidewalk.
“Are you two coming?”
We laughed.
And walked away.
Not toward the house.
Away from it.
May you like
Because sometimes the strongest ending isn't destroying the place that hurt you.
It's leaving it behind.
