I signed the papers not because Mark would know, but because I would, and because he had trusted me, and because the love did not end at the edge of his life.

I honored his wish into a silence that could not thank me.

And that, it turned out, was not the end of the loving between us, in either direction.

Down the hall, sealed in an envelope, he was about to honor me back.

Chapter 9 — Wait, Sally

As I was leaving the hospital, I walked slowly down the long hallway toward the exit.