“Please, I just… I thought I could have both. I thought I could leave clean.”
“Clean would’ve been honesty. Not a declaration after fireworks,” I said.
He reached for the handle, but the door was still locked.
“You don’t live here anymore,” I said.
And I turned off the porch light and closed the inner door.
I slept better that night than I had in months.
Because that was my Independence Day, too.







