“‘This is Diana—our family dropout,’ my mother said for the fifteenth Thanksgiving in a row, but when my sister’s new husband reached across the table to shake my hand, his grip locked, his face went still, and the room forgot how to laugh before he said the two words nobody there was prepared to hear”

analyze patterns. I make recommendations that determine whether operations proceed or redirect.”

I didn’t describe scale.

She heard it anyway.

The weight of it, even through the careful phrasing.

She said, “And Ethan’s team?”

I said, “Cassidy—”

She said, “I know you can’t say it.”

I said nothing.

She said quietly, “But they came home.”

After a long pause, I continue reading …