Smaller, quieter, meaner.
And willing to cut away anything that made him feel exposed.
Even me.
Especially me.
I looked at him and thought about the version of myself who had left medical school because she believed love was an investment that would come back to both of us someday.
I had not just paid his tuition.
I had paid with the life I thought I could still reclaim.
The records would later show payments, transfers, dates, and signatures.
But the records would not show my anxiety when I withdrew from school.
They would not show how much it hurt to pack away all my textbooks and shut the lid on my future.
“I might have understood fear,” I said. “I cannot forgive being treated like a loose end.”
He tried to reach for me.
I stepped back.
“And I can’t forgive the fact that you let your family turn my sacrifice into something to exploit.”