I Worked Nights and Nursed My Husband Through Cancer – The Week He Was Declared Cancer-Free, He Asked for a Divorce, but His Doctor Stopped Me and Said, ‘There’s Something You Should Know’

“Sometimes you say it so fast nobody gets the chance to say, ‘Let me help.'”

I stared at the tea.

“When somebody needs you, you run toward them,” she said. “You always have.”

My throat tightened.

“The harder question is what you do when they don’t.”

Driving home, I finally admitted something ugly.

I had liked being needed.

Before Theo got sick, I never knew where I stood with him. During treatment, I always knew.

He called for me when he was sick and reached for me when he was afraid.

Need had felt dangerously close to love.

Maybe both things could be true.

When I got home, Theo’s duffel bag was still by the door.

“Where did you go?”

I pulled my suitcase from the bedroom closet.

Theo followed me. “What are you doing?”