The material was not an indictment prepared solely for me.

It was an archive of love expressed as effort.

“Can I do anything?”

“You can respect what they built,” Marianne said.

“You can meet your existing obligations without trying to take ownership of their success.

And you can answer their questions without expecting admiration for finally doing so.”

I closed the folder carefully.

For the first time, I understood why the smile I’d seen across the auditorium had unsettled me.