“She cried,” Gabriel said, and a small, watery, aching smile touched his mouth at the memory.

“She cried for about an hour.

And then she went quiet for a while.

And then she laughed, that sweet laugh of hers, you know the one, and she looked at me and she said she wanted to keep me as her husband anyway.” I want to stop here, because this is the part of the story that matters most to me, the part I most need anyone hearing it to understand.

My sister was not a bystander to her own life.