I'd knitted it for him the winter of my freshman year. It took me two full weeks to learn how. I'd pricked my fingers more times than I could count.
The scarf landed in a puddle, soaking up mud.
He lifted his foot and ground his sole into it.
"I don't know how you tracked down this address."
His voice was low, nearly swallowed by the rain.
"But I'm warning you. Don't come around here again."
"I'm married. You harassed my wife. She's pregnant. She can't handle this kind of stress."
"And if you even think about using the past to threaten me, my legal team will show you exactly what an extortion charge looks like."
He closed the umbrella.
Rain poured down between us, poured down onto the ruined scarf on the ground. He turned to leave.
Four years.
I'd dropped out of college to take care of his mother. Lived from twenty to twenty-four pouring every last drop of my youth and every cent of my savings into the bottomless pit of a dead boyfriend's family.
My classmates called me stupid. My relatives called me insane.
Every morning, the first thing I did was take my medication. The second was cook porridge for Serena.