“Because I’m prioritizing my own guilt and feelings over my son?” she asks. “Trying, including by bringing you into our family, to keep a piece of David going?”

I hesitate. “Is that a question or…”

“I already know the answer.” She smiles, gently moving her hand to my cheek and squeezing it. “I think about that every day. We all deal with grief differently, Andre. I watch my son’s last moments over and over again, trying to find a way to keep his memory living on—figuratively and literally. My husband buries himself in his work, in the languages of the past, to distance himself from time travel, and in turn, distance himself from David’s memory. And Blake? Blake is trying to fill the hole that his brother left in our family, without being swallowed up by the weight of his memory, and he doesn’t even know that, in doing so, he’s tearing himself apart.”

“So why don’t you do something about it?” I ask. “I don’t mean that in a bad way.”

She chuckles again, softly. “No, of course not. You mean it in the most honest way possible.”

She falls silent, sitting back and looking out the window, as if the answer is out there. It’s starting to snow, just a bit. Flurries dance in the air, twirling a beautiful ballet as they descend from the heavens.

“I suppose it’s because I can control this,” she says, gesturing around her. “I know how this story ends. I know what it’ll feel like, and I know that, when I want it to, the feeling can be over.

“I cannot control how Blake feels. I can’t fix that. I can’t remove his pain. You tried to. That’s not only brave, but also—”

“Stupid?”

“Kind,” she says gently. “It’s a kindness. Knowing what you’d sacrifice? You only do that for someone you care for. Someone you love.”

“I don’t know about that,” I scoff.

Claire arches a brow. “Really, now? You went through all of this because, what? You’re a good person? Come on now, Andre. That’s admirable, but foolish. Everyone has some selfishness in them. What you tried to do goes against the rules of human self-preservation. And the only reason humans go against that is because of love.

“He needs someone, Andre. For the longest time, I thought it was me. I thought I could fix everything if I could just…give him space. David was like that. He figured things out on his own, so I assumed that Blake would follow in his footsteps, given the chance. I was wrong.”