And when the possibility became real, in a banquet room, in front of everyone, that love — the practical, prepared, clear-eyed kind — was the thing that let me get her out clean.

Chapter 6 — Rachel’s Door

My friend Rachel opened her apartment door before I could knock twice.

She looked at Fiona’s cheek, and she stepped aside, and she said, “You can stay as long as you need.” That was all.

No questions, no lecture, no request that I consider the other side.

Just a door held open and a place to be safe, which was, after two years of my own family telling me to keep the peace, a kindness so simple it nearly broke me.

I put Fiona to bed in a borrowed T-shirt and sat beside her until her breathing slowed and evened into sleep.