I opened the lid just far enough to check that the notebook and the covers remained together.

I did not reread the passages.

I knew what they said.

I put the lid back and left it there until morning.

Then I made tea.

The house was quiet, but not with the old kind of quiet.

My phone contained messages from daughters who had arrived home, a photograph of Chloe and Marcus, and a complaint from Evelyn about a shoe she had never liked enough to wear for so long.

I answered the arrivals.