She told me on a Sunday, in passing, while doing something else, and I said, “Are you sure?”

And Evelyn said, “No.

I’m just done paying for the option.”

Part Thirty-Eight: Nora

My daughters are not the same and everybody who meets them for eleven minutes works that out.

Maya asks.

Maya has asked about everything, in public, at volume, since she was five, and she is the reason the difficult conversations in this family have all been had.

Nora watches.