I wanted to explain that she was allowed every feeling in the world, just not the authority to turn my wedding into its repayment.

The familiar paragraphs formed in my head.

I didn’t send them.

In the evening, Frank texted one photograph of the oak shelves in my workshop.

Beneath it he wrote: Checked the brackets before the wedding.

Still holding strong.

I laughed so suddenly that Marcus looked up from his book.

“What’s funny?”