His mother decided which relatives were welcome.

Harper had been invited into private spaces I believed belonged to my marriage.

When I was medically cleared to leave the hospital, Lena prepared the guest bedroom at her house.

Gabriel brought the necessary clothes and toiletries.

He asked me to make a written list rather than guessing what I wanted.

I added Piper’s bedtime books, her favorite yellow blanket, my grandmother’s bracelet, and the worn wooden music box I had kept since college.

“I can get most of this,” he said.