Still, a few weeks ago she and Austin had been talking about putting in a new sprinkler system in the front lawn. The meandering years of conversation that had made up their marriage had been chopped off midsentence.

Now the shackle of their home and all their possessions settled around her neck, and she felt too empty to celebrate. She had begun on her path to freedom, but she wasn’t free yet.

After a while, she turned off the stove, searched for local real estate agents on her phone, and began calling down the list until she connected with a live person instead of voice mail. The agent, Tanya Martin, was smart and charming. Molly arranged to meet Tanya at the house on the following Saturday when they could go over the property and sign Tanya’s contract.

After that, she spent the weekend at the public library, researching witches and witchcraft. She also meditated religiously and started taking yoga classes again. It felt good to practice the simple disciplines, and she could sense the deep, interior golden well settling into a pool of calm.

Julia called on Monday. Molly felt a huge emotional disconnect from the conversation, but she stuck with the phone call for Julia’s sake.

Still, she had little to say. What could she offer? “Hey, I discovered I can break bottles with my mind, and I really want to learn that privacy spell the new DA cast last week.”

Yeah, that would go over well. So she mostly listened. When Julia complained about the long hours her husband worked, Molly realized that Julia complained about her husband all the time.

“You know you don’t have to live that way if you don’t want to,” she said.

“That’s easy for you to say now that you’ve taken the plunge and left your own asshole husband. You don’t have a child to think about, or daycare expenses, or how you would manage being a single mother on child support.”

Molly marveled at the depth of her friend’s discontent. Had Julia always sounded so negative, or was this something new? Or maybe now that the blinders had fallen from Molly’s eyes, she was seeing everything more clearly?

“All of that is true,” Molly replied dryly. “But it still wasn’t easy. And if you really need to leave, you know the child support would be enough. You might have to cut some corners and get a job, but you could make it work.”

Julia’s exhalation of laughter sounded bitter. “You know, it’s funny. I used to envy your and Austin’s lifestyle. Everything seemed so easy for you, but then you left him and altered almost everything about your life, and you know what? Nothing’s changed. I still envy you.”