O que podia ter sido

The way it might have ended - the conclusion against which reality had decisively voted - was all he could think about. Stunned by how little he'd gotten over her and she'd gotten over him, he walked away understanding,  as outside his reading in classical Greek drama he'd never had to understand before,  how easily life can be one thing rather than another and how accidentally a destiny is made.... on the other hand, how accidental fate may seem when things can never turn out other than they do.

The Human Stain, Philip Roth