CNU-My daughter-in-law said Christmas would be easier if I stayed away, and my son did not even raise his eyes to defend me. So I stayed home, alone, exactly as requested. …

That had happened in stages already.

What I felt instead was the cold, unmistakable arrival of certainty.

For years I had kept telling myself to wait. Wait for Vincent to wake up. Wait for Linda to reveal enough of herself that he could no longer deny it. Wait for time, disappointment, and ordinary life to do the corrective work I had not been able to continue reading …