Once the wedding was over, we’d have space to return to ordinary life and find our balance.

That reasoning was convenient.

It placed the burden of correction somewhere in the future.

Two days before the ceremony, I found Mabel sitting under her bed with a box of crayons.

She had drawn three people: a tall woman in a white dress, a tall man in a dark suit, and a tiny girl near the edge of the page.

I asked why she was so far away.