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The sun was setting as Esme made her choice. She hadn't come to jump; she had originally planned to just stare into the water and let it soothe her, just as looking into the water had done when she was a child. The warmth of the setting sun settled on her like it had everyday for the past twenty six years, and it broke her heart even further that her son would never feel its warmth or play under it. She edged closer to the cliff, not realizing what she planned until she was close enough that if she took one more step, she would fall. She looked down into the crashing, tumultuous waves, wanting to dive under them and never surface. Her baby was gone, there was nothing here for her anymore. And if she lived, Charles would just find her again and drag her home. She felt tears prick her eyes. She had only ever wanted a happy life for herself and her son, free of Charles. He had controlled her life for years, had been the worst husband she could imagine. She still remembered the only time she had ever burned dinner, shortly after they were married. She had been tired from going over to her family's house and helping look after her father after his heart attack, so she had gone to lay down in her room, meaning to sleep only a few minutes. She woke to the smell of burning chicken and ran to the kitchen to yank it out of the oven just as Charles had come home from work. He had scowled, then backhanded her into a chair. When she stumbled, he had grabbed her hair and yelled that she was good for nothing and that if she ever burned dinner again, he wouldn't stop hitting her next time. Her marriage to him had been bitter and unhappy, but he was so violent that she feared his wrath if she tried to leave. The only reason she had finally found the courage to leave him was because she didn't want to raise her son in that kind of home, but he had still found her. She had escaped again, but her son died two days after his birth. She had survived for years in a terrible marriage and losing her family because her husband kept them apart, but losing her son had broken her. She no longer had her son, but she had a way to be free. She remembered an old line from a book she'd read before she'd married Charles: "There are things that we don't want to happen but have to accept, things we don't want to know but have to learn, and people we can't live without but have to let go". It fit her life perfectly. She hadn't wanted to marry Charles, but had done it because he had seemed like a good match and she had needed a husband. She hadn't wanted to know that she had married an abusive man, but had to accept it in order to survive. She couldn't bear losing her son, but had been forced to let him go. She looked down again, seeing the waves beneath her differently. Though still crashing, they seemed more peaceful somehow. She closed her eyes, trying to find the courage to jump, anticipating the peace she would soon find. She leaned forward, already imagining her son in her arms again, and fell into the crashing sea that sucked her down into nothingness.