I slid it onto my desk beside a drawing June had made of five stick figures and an exceptionally large dog.

There were not five people living in our house.

But the picture did not have to be a prediction.

It could simply be a child’s way of arranging everyone she cared about on one page.

PART 18: A Choice Made Freely

One evening Nathaniel asked whether I ever thought about us as a couple.

We sat on the back patio while the girls were inside with Miriam building a blanket fort.

“I think about who we were,” I said.