A child did not need to understand financial distress to carry the fear that sentence created.

His apology was real in places and incomplete in others.

He still called the medical letter a misunderstanding.

He still described the affair as something that “happened.” He wrote more about losing me than about the choices he had made.

Grace asked whether I wanted to respond.

I told her not yet.

I spent the weekend in the garden.

Noah helped me pull weeds from around the tomatoes Julian had planted.