you don't have to explain why you left. they will never understand, because they never saw how heavy it was for you to carry their absence long before you stepped away. it hurt to walk out on someone you still loved, someone you still wanted, even when every moment with them chipped pieces from your heart you couldn't give anymore. you tried to make it work, you tried to forgive, you tried to stay gentle, even as the walls they built trapped your tenderness and suffocated your light. leaving was not cruelty, it was mercy, mercy for yourself, for the parts of you they would never hold, for the love you still have that deserves to live. don't apologize for closing the door, for saying no to emptiness, for sparing yourself from a story that had no ending for you. so mourn quietly if you must, for the person you loved, for the person you thought they were, and then, softly, turn towards yourself and remember, you are still whole, even after walking away.
