He built that outcome, brick by brick, in the dark, while I was still setting a place for him at the table.

Chapter 16 — What I Kept

People ask, sometimes, whether it felt good — the plane, the third seat, his face when he saw me in the aisle.

I understand why they ask.

But the honest answer is that it never felt like triumph, and I never wanted it to.

Standing in that aisle, I hadn’t felt powerful.