“Better to be open.

Laura can find a smaller place, and everyone can move forward.”

I looked at the chandelier above us.

Mark and I had selected it together when the house was built.

Manuel had teased us for spending too much on lighting.

I remember laughing and telling him we’d saved so carefully for so long that we were allowed one impractical purchase.

It occurred to me that this was exactly how erasure happened: a person narrated you out of your own life while you sat three chairs away.