I felt grateful that we had found a way to tell the truth without turning it into another war.

PART 19: The Birthday Table

The girls turned five on a rainy weekend.

We celebrated at the community center with paper stars, a homemade cake, and an enormous cardboard castle built from boxes left over from our studio’s furniture delivery.

Their friends ran from room to room wearing crooked crowns.

Miriam supervised the frosting.

Jonah repaired the castle gate after June declared it wasn’t structurally sound.

Priya took photographs while pretending she had never organized a children’s party before.