The people we think are strangers, the endings we think are endings, the small kindnesses we imagine we are giving away to no lasting effect, all of it can turn out, with no warning at all, to be the exact opposite of what it seemed.

The real story of Julian and me was about to open, the very next day, in the hands of a stranger in a dark suit, with four words that would take the ground out from under my entire life.

Chapter 10 — You Walked Straight Into His Trap

The day after the funeral, a man I had never seen before found me in the hospice lobby, where I had gone to return my volunteer badge, because I did not think I could keep walking those halls now that Julian was gone.

He was an older man, silver-haired and immaculately dressed, carrying a smooth wooden box under one arm, and he crossed the lobby toward me with the certainty of a person who had been looking for me specifically.