Chapter 11

I took a deep breath, gathering the strength for what I knew would be my final words to him: "Those five years we shared are over, Andrew. Even though I survived, even though I'm standing here alive..." My voice was soft but each word carried the weight of absolute finality: "You are no longer my choice." Andrew's face drained of all color as if I had physically struck him. "Do you really wish..." I continued with deliberate cruelty, needing him to understand the depth of the damage he had caused, "that I had actually died in those waters before you'd finally let go?" "Don't say that!" His voice shattered completely, the words coming out broken and desperate. "I'll leave... I'll go right now and never bother you again." He looked up at me one final time, his eyes full of a humility I had never seen in all our years together: "As long as you're alive and breathing somewhere in this world... I'll agree to anything you ask." When he turned to leave, his back was hunched like an old