I was standing in the doorway watching them prove I had only ever been a guest who cooked.

And the strange thing was that it did not wound me the way it would have a week before.

It freed me.

You cannot be exiled from a place you have decided to leave.

I looked at the three of them in their perfect portrait, and I understood that I was not losing a family.

I was declining to keep auditioning for one.\n\nTristan’s eyes went to the bright balloon in Chloe’s hand, and his face soured.

“You two went and had fun while I was lying here in pain?”