"Can you?"
"Not since October sixth," he said, and she almost smiled, because he had named the date the way people name anniversaries of accidents.
She told him about the middle name. He listened without interrupting, which Denise had been teaching him, and when she finished he said, "What do you need from me right now? Not what do you want me to fix. What do you need."
"I need you to stop looking at Ruth like she is only a redemption story," Aaliyah said. "She is also the woman who left me. Both things. If we keep her in Elias's life, I need you to help me tell him true things when the time comes, not pretty ones."
"I can do that."
"And I need—" She stopped. Started again. "I need you to understand that every time I let her through the door I am choosing something that costs me. I am not noble for doing it. I am scared and angry and sometimes I hate you a little for putting me in the position of choosing at all. If I keep choosing yes, it will be because of Elias, and because of the version of myself I am trying to become, not because you arranged it well."