They live in the same house.

I would miss Tessa every day for the rest of my life, an ache with no bottom to it.

And at the very same moment I would be grateful, past all words, for the small girl in my arms who had her mother’s laugh and her mother’s fierce open heart, and who was safe now, and mine to keep.

Both of those were true at once, and holding both of them, I found, was simply what it meant to still be standing after the worst thing had happened.

You do not choose between the loss and the love.