“You know,” she says brokenly, “Maddy told me a story about her husband. She’d rejected him, you see.” I shake my head, because I don’t see. But she keeps talking. “She said he’d call her every night. He’d ask her one question. Was it worth it? Being without him,” Stella explains. “Was it worth it?” She’s not talking about Maddy anymore. I clear my throat, but my voice is still a thick rasp. “Was it?” “I know how to be alone,” she says. “I’ve done it more than half my life. I can do it again.”
