Chapter Sixteen
Another Ending
In 2022, I married the first woman I had ever built a life with.
For the little girl who had once been told that loving another girl was something she wasn't supposed to do, that alone represented how far I'd come.
The marriage lasted until 2025.
Then it ended. We divorced.
? ? ?
There are probably readers who will want to know what happened. I'm not going to answer those questions.
Not because the marriage didn't matter. It did. She was part of my life from 2018 until 2025.
But some stories don't belong entirely to one person. This is where I choose to draw that line.
The marriage happened. It ended. And the details of why will remain private.
Writing a memoir has taught me the difference between honesty and exposure.
? ? ?
The divorce itself was difficult enough. But there was something else I had to deal with.
People talked. Rumors spread. Opinions formed.
Two people can live inside something for years, yet people standing completely outside it can become convinced they understand exactly what happened.
There was a time when I wanted to explain myself, correct everybody, defend myself.
Eventually I realized how exhausting that would be.
People were going to believe what they wanted to believe. They weren't living my life. I was.
? ? ?
Still, another marriage had ended, and I had to face another beginning.
I had started over before. More than once.
That didn't mean I enjoyed doing it. It meant I knew I could.
This time I didn't want to rush into anything. I wasn't looking for another wife or somebody to fill an empty space.
What I needed was time. Peace. Maybe somebody to talk to. A friend.
I didn't know that person was already on her way into my story.
? ? ?
On April 7, 2025, my phone lit up with a message.
It came from a woman in Georgia.
Cynthia Linley.
Everybody called her Bull.
She wasn't sending some dramatic declaration of love. She was checking on me.
Sometimes the smallest moments become the ones that change everything.
I answered.
We started talking.
At first, that's all it was.
Conversation.
On April 7, 2025, Bull was simply the woman who checked on me.
And I was simply the woman who answered.