“Some men,” he said, “choose to become husbands.

Gabriel chose to become something rarer than that.

Gabriel chose to become a true protector.” The park erupted in applause, and I watched my sister look up at the sound of it, look around at all those clapping hands, all those faces turned toward her family with warmth instead of pity, and I watched her understand that the applause was for her too, for the life she had built and fought for and nearly died to give her children.

She lifted the baby in her arms a little, the way you do when you want the world to see something precious, and she laughed her sweet laugh, and the whole park seemed to lean toward her, and I thought: this.