And there is nothing on earth more unbreakable than that.

Chapter 2 — The Party

I called my father, Gerald, first.

When he picked up, loud party music and cheerful chatter came pouring through the receiver.

I could hear silverware against fine china, and my younger sister, Sabrina, calling out somewhere in the background for everyone to gather around her birthday cake.

It was, I would only later understand, the most fitting possible soundtrack to the conversation I was about to have — the sound of my family celebrating, carrying on, entirely untouched, while I stood in a chapel with the ashes of the worst morning of my life still on my skin.

“Dad,” I whispered into the phone, squeezing my eyes shut.