After the store closed, and the accident, Ralph needed her again—to pick up his prescriptions, to wash his back with a sponge, to push him down the street in his wheelchair. He could see her again, recognize her presence, but only because he had nothing left. Mirella finally learned to speak the thoughts that had been circling her mind for decades: This is not why I got married, and This is not why I came here. It took a few weeks for her to pack her things, and all along, Ralph thought that she was bluffing. When she started shipping the boxes, he asked her if she was really willing to
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