A family is not a transaction.

For three years I had thought the greatest loss of my life was the woman I had sent away.

I hadn’t understood that the greater tragedy was the person I had allowed myself to become, someone who treated love like a liability and honesty like a negotiable term.

I could not change the night Hannah stood in our dining room with two tiny heartbeats pictured inside her purse.

I could not give her back the appointments she’d attended alone or the nights she’d spent beside two hospital bassinets without me.