He had built his whole life around keeping his daughter afloat, and himself with her.

And when Sarah came into his life, she had seemed to understand all of it.

She never asked him to take down Hannah’s photographs.

She never complained when Lily talked about her mother at the dinner table.

She even accompanied the little girl, every year, to leave flowers with Lily’s grandmother, Evelyn, at Hannah’s grave.

Marcus had watched all of that, and had felt an enormous gratitude, and had mistaken that patience for kindness.

He understood now, kneeling in the hallway, that it had never been kindness.