I owed her better.”

The entire experience taught me something that mattered when parenting the boys: a person can make the right decision in the present and still owe an apology for the pain caused by how they reached it.

I couldn’t make the canceled proposal harmless by calling it necessary.

Blair’s feelings belonged to her.

So did Lauren’s.

So, increasingly, did the boys’ opinions about me.

Blair wasn’t made into an enemy either.