Especially if you’re angry.

I folded the note and put it in my pocket.

The dining room looked as it did in every holiday photograph: linen napkins, silver coffee service, pale roses in a crystal vase, sunlight catching on the long windows.

Only one detail had changed.

The upholstered chair Mariana loved had been moved away from the table and replaced with a wooden side chair.

My mother sat at the head.