But I know what it took to get her here.

I know what you did, all those years, on your own.

I don’t think you’ve ever heard anyone say it, so let me.

It was extraordinary, what you did.”

I had to blink hard against the sudden sting in my eyes.

“Take good care of her,” I said, because it was all I could manage.

“I promise you I will,” Timothy said, and I believed him, this young man who had looked at a woman shaped by an abandoned childhood and seen not damage but strength, and had loved her for it.

In three days he would be my son-in-law.