It was absurd, inventive, and entirely his.

Across the top, in large uneven letters, he’d written OUR PROJECT.

I studied the paper for a long moment.

Lauren watched me without speaking.

In that drawing, for the first time, I could see a future Mason was beginning to imagine for the two of us.

PART 14

My mother wrote to me in March.

She had respected my request for space, though several relatives had called to ask whether I was being unnecessarily harsh.