"I almost threw it away," he said. "Every month I almost threw it away. I want you to see that I didn't."
"I see it."
"I'm not the man in this picture anymore. You're not her. If we keep this, it's not because we're going back to those people. It's because those people are why Sophie exists, and why Daniel cried at the toast, and why your father still shakes my hand like a contract. I can honor them without pretending we didn't break."
Rachel touched the edge of the frame, not the faces. "I don't want a party," she said. "I want a life where you can travel and not have to ask if I'm dangerous, and where I can be lonely and not treat loneliness as a permission slip. I don't know if we're there. I know we're closer than the night the lights came on."
"Closer is not nothing."
They went to bed early, like people who had survived something and were still tired from it. In the dark Jason said, "I love you. I'm still angry. The love is not a cancellation of the anger. If you can stand that, I can stand telling you."