After.

“Do you not think she will miss you?”

He looked to the floor, took a long slow drag of his cigarette,
“Maybe some.”  His eyes slowly left the floor, a plume of smoke moving between him and the stranger.
“But she will be better off.”

The stranger nodded but didn’t let him off so easy.

“Hard for a father to make that decision. Perhaps one day she won’t agree.”

It was a fair assumption, sometimes he had the same thoughts of his mother. He sighed, put the cigarette out and stood to leave. The stranger grabbed his left hand, pulled it to her chest.  She forced him to make eye contact.
“I wasn’t trying to scare you off”.

He gave her a study, frail and holding on, much like him, much like everyone. He could stay, he could tell her many reasons for his choice to run away. But the timer on his wrist passed time, and he knew it was time to move on. He gently removed his hand from her breast, watched her shoulders slunch with defeat. He thought about offering her some small solace, a peck on the cheek, a hug, something human. Instead he turned to go, without a word, leaving the stranger behind and with her everything he had ever known.