We laughed anyway, because she’d earned it.

That night I wrote in Elena’s notebook about the meeting with Walter, the photographs, and the ordinary sound of Valerie laughing in the kitchen.

I wanted to measure my recovery in more than lab results and courtroom dates.

I wanted to remember that something inside our family was being repaired without anyone pretending the damage had not occurred.

PART 21

The final legal resolution did not arrive with a thunderclap.