But to stand between your children and the danger, and take the blow yourself, and make sure that what reaches them is not the blow but the safety on the other side of it.

I closed the door on my sleeping children, so as not to wake them.

And then I picked up my phone, and I began.

Chapter 8 — Three Calls

My first call was to our wedding planner.

“I need to make a few changes,” I said, and my voice was so calm it did not sound like mine.

She took my changes without a single question, and one of them was small, and specific, and would not make sense to her until two days later, when it would make sense to everyone.

My second call was to my bank.