That was all the explanation my son had ever offered, to me or to anyone, three plain words that contained seventeen years of love.

And now the whole world knew that he had kept it.

Chapter 20 — Into the Light

A month later, Julian packed his bags for college.

I watched him fold his clothes into boxes and suitcases, this tall young man who had once been a five-year-old whispering promises across a hospice bed, and I wondered what he would do with the dress.

Part of me expected him to fold it away carefully, to place it back in a box in the attic, alongside Lily’s original in her memory box, a beautiful thing whose purpose had been served, to be preserved in the dark with the rest of our grief.