“If Patrick leaves, I don’t know what will happen to his wife. When it’s clear that he’s not coming back, she could stay inside me, metastasizing through my bones until nobody can tell us apart. Or she might leave. A parasite deserting a starving host. A stowaway swimming from a sinking ship.... I'm not sure which fate I prefer... To let Sylvia devour me or to be entirely alone again, abandoned inside my skin.”