—

Weeks later, I sat on my grandmother’s porch swing with a cup of coffee warming my hands. The deed was back in my name. The trust remained untouched. The annulment was final.

Megan pulled up and climbed the steps with two pastries in a paper bag.

“How are you, really?” she asked.

“Tired and sad,” I said. “But good.”

She squeezed my hand, and together we rocked in the quiet.

So that is where I am now, friends. I am not dating anyone, and I am healing slowly.

I am also learning to trust myself and my instincts for the first time since before I married Aaron.

I finally understood that the jackpot I needed had never been the ring.

It was finally meeting the woman I had been waiting to become