It is a character.

It is who someone has decided to be.

And once you know who a person has decided to be, continuing to hand them your child is not grace.

It is negligence.

I felt the old fury rise in me, the reflex to leap up and tear the card in half and finally, finally say the thing out loud — and beside me I felt Brandon go still in the exact same way, both of us on the edge of the same explosion.

But neither of us moved.