For one moment, I remembered another aisle.
An airplane aisle.
A flight attendant carrying a small gift toward my husband and my best friend.
I had thought I was sending them the ending.
I know. And Dawson deserves to know too.
Instead, I had sent the first sentence of everything that came next.
Divorce.
Truth.
Oliver.
Consequences.
A new shape of family none of us would have chosen.
And yet—
one I could finally stand inside without feeling like I was living someone else's secret.
At the dessert table, Oliver handed me a slice of chocolate cake.
The plastic family bracelet he had given me years earlier was long gone.
The elastic had snapped.
I kept one green bead in my jewelry box.
Not beside the old friendship bracelet.
Not beside Ryan's anniversary bracelet.
In its own compartment.
Because that was the lesson the adults in our lives had taken years to learn.
