Two Days Before My Wedding, My Fiancé Left Our Video Call Open by Accident — and I Heard His Mother Ask, “Did You Get Her to Sign It?”

I learned to braid two more heads of hair.

I learned which foods Ava would eat and which ones Lily would only eat if her sister ate them first.

I learned to be three places at once and to apologize to Ben, over and over, for the ways his own childhood had to shrink to make room for two grieving cousins who were now his sisters.

I stretched a budget built for two across four.

I gave up things I do not even let myself remember giving up.