“Tell me what you need me to do,” he said.

That was all.

No questions about whether I was sure, no complaint about the hour, no lecture, no let’s-not-be-hasty, no defense of Liam, no suggestion that I calm down and think it over.

Just: tell me what you need me to do.

My brother, roused from sleep at five in the morning, did in a single sentence the thing my husband had refused to do all night.

He showed up.