She continued.

“I will not blame them for the work of raising them.

I will not make them feel that their needs cost me the life I wanted.

When the days are difficult, I will remember that I asked for this life, and I will choose my family every day.”

The staff were waiting with the first part of the meal.

The menus had listed fifty-eight dollars a person, a price Daniel could calculate more readily that evening than an answer about his earlier words.

“I’d choose them tomorrow,” Claire repeated.