"I was completely dumbfounded when his wife decided to leave him. Never, not even in my wildest daydreams did I imagine that a woman could choose to leave her husband.
When Berta left, my admiration for her grew. How she found the strength to leave, I don’t know. I have never been that strong. I let things happen to me; I don’t make things happen.
The day she left, his eyes lost their peculiar shimmer."