Elena accepted the immediate interruption, if not the principle behind it.

Julian greeted me with a short nod.

He looked familiar and unfamiliar at once: the man whose name had occupied my worst night, standing in a room where my child was beginning a new life.

I nodded back.

We did not need to settle anything at the entrance.

Soon afterward, Chloe looped her arm through mine.

“You’re squeezing,” she whispered.

I loosened my grip.