Afterward she chose a blue rug for the bedroom floor.

I sat in the kitchen while they talked, feeling pride and regret mingle so tightly I couldn’t separate them.

We had lost the marriage.

Perhaps we could still learn how to be the parents our daughter needed.

PART 18

A pretrial hearing brought Dolores back into my sight.

She wore a pale gray blazer and sat beside her attorney, looking much as she had at every family holiday dinner.

She could have been waiting for someone to bring dessert.