You weren't cruel. You were scared and eighteen months from therapy. She deserved better and so did you. You can hold both of those things without collapsing.
— Sophie Laurent · 39
Dad's been gone eleven months. I still make two cups of tea most mornings before I catch myself. Today I let the second one cool on the counter and told him about my promotion out loud. The kitchen felt warmer for exactly one minute.
I wrote her four pages the night she left and never opened them again. Tonight I recorded them here instead. I'm not sending them anywhere. I just needed the sentences to exist somewhere outside my chest.
I turned off Slack, cried in the shower for six minutes, and slept until 3pm. My worth didn't decrease. I'm writing this so future-me remembers that resting was allowed.
Stories are composite reflections, not real users. Narration is generated by AI.