My brother, whom my mother had built a lifeboat for.

My mother, who had copied ledgers for a decade so this night could end in justice instead of ash.

Lucas, who had drawn a line around me before I even knew there was a line.

It was the exact opposite of walking down that aisle alone.

It turned out I had never been alone at all.

That, in the end, is what the whole terrible night gave me, underneath the fear and the loss and the ruin of the day I had planned — it gave me the truth about who had been standing around me my whole life, invisible, unthanked, holding lines I did not know existed.