I did.

And her fingers around mine in that quiet room felt like the only contract that had ever really mattered being quietly, permanently signed.

I stood there in the dark a long time, just letting her hold my finger.

Liam had spent that whole terrible stretch of days worrying about his job, and his mother, and his dinner, and his reputation, tending each of them with real and constant care.

He had never once, in all of it, asked whether his daughter was safe.