afternoon, I found them laughing beneath a blanket fort, lost in a game only they understood.
Neither noticed me watching.
Over the following months, Claire became part of our lives one careful step at a time.
She never asked Ari to call her Mom.
She never removed Sarah’s pictures.
Before hanging a photo of us together, Claire asked softly, “Would you like Sarah’s pictures to stay exactly where they are?”
I stared at her.
“You’d be okay with that?”
“Of course. They’re part of your family.”
She said it as
