I had gone into that marriage to save Caleb’s life.

I came out of it having gained, and then lost, a father I never expected to have.

Both of those things were true, and I held them both, and I was grateful beyond measure for every day of it.

Grief is a strange country, and grieving Arthur was stranger than most, because there was no map for it.

The world had a ready category for me, the young widow of a rich old man, and it was not a flattering one; the same cynics who had called me a gold-digger at the wedding were ready to call me one at the funeral.

Let them.