Boston

Boston is the place where Jada built a life with Decker before leaving him and returning to Arizona. Recalled through the marriage’s aftermath rather than presented as her home in the novel’s current action, the city carries the weight of a life she had struggled to leave and decisively rejects returning to.

The City of Jada’s Former Life

Jada moved to Boston with Decker, and the city became the setting of their married life. Her work there was part of a longer connection to real estate: she had worked with her father before the move and continued in the same field in Boston. When she later meets Cane, she explains that she has only just returned to Arizona after living in Boston with her husband. The city therefore represents both her former marriage and a professional life she can carry with her beyond it.

Marriage and the Decision to Leave

Jada’s recollections of Boston reveal a marriage shaped by instability. Decker could be attentive one moment and frighteningly volatile the next, leaving her unsure what to expect at home. His alternating behavior made it difficult for her to leave: when she found the resolve to go, he exploited her insecurities, emphasizing the prospect of starting over with little, the future they had discussed, and the commitments she had made in marriage. Jada describes this pattern as exhausting and confusing, a cycle that continued until she witnessed his infidelity and could no longer treat her suspicions as uncertain.

After that discovery, Jada arranged to stay with a friend while Decker was at work. Although he had never hit her, she feared how he might react to her leaving and sought a place where she would feel safer. Decker then alternated between pleading for her return and lashing out at her. During a drunken episode he appeared at her friend’s home; after an encounter with the friend’s husband, he did not return there. He continued to complicate Jada’s life from a distance by fighting the divorce.

A Past That Returns in Memory

Boston remains present after Jada has left it because memories of Decker intrude into her new life. A nightmare brings back his angry voice, and the memory leaves her waking in fear and searching the room. His Northeastern accent, once appealing to her, becomes a reminder of nights when she tried to avoid provoking him. When Decker predicts that she will return, Jada rejects the prediction: she will not go back to him or to the life she left behind. The city is thus linked not only to a former address but to the fear and uncertainty that continue to surface after her departure.

Leaving Boston and Its Narrative Significance

Jada’s return to Arizona establishes a physical distance of roughly two thousand miles between her and Decker. In a later confrontation, she names the fear she lived with, the repeated betrayals she endured, and how long she tried to make the marriage work. Her defense of herself marks a change from the silence and self-doubt that had helped keep her in the relationship. Boston functions as the point of departure against which that change becomes legible: Jada has not simply moved cities, but has refused the former husband’s claim that she must come back. Her experience there also precedes her renewed real-estate work in Arizona, connecting the life she left with the skills she brings into her new one.