Three Minutes Before the Ceremony
That is not a mistake made under stress.
That is a position.
And it had been explained to a nine-year-old, in advance, coherently enough that she could repeat it back to me in sequence on a tile floor.
Which meant it was not the first conversation.
I did not know how many there had been.
I found out over the following month, and it was worse than I thought standing in that corridor, and I did not need to know it to know what I was going to do.