Welcome

Let me start with the washing machine. I bought it the year my husband, Frank, and I moved into our house on Elm Creek Road. It was a plain white top-loader with absolutely no...

I first noticed that when he was around fifteen. I kept hoping he would grow out of it. He’s still working on it. His wife, Vanessa, is thirty-four. She is a marketing director at...

Seat 34A “I’d like to switch seats, please.” My grandmother said it so softly that I almost thought I had misunderstood her. We were standing at the gate counter at Boston Logan. She held...

Why had she stopped flying? I knew only pieces of the story about my grandfather. His name was Frank Walsh. He had worked as an aircraft mechanic at Logan for thirty-four years. According to...

The alarm went off at five in the morning. For once, I didn’t hit snooze. I reached over, shut it off before it could beep again, and slipped quietly out of bed. Daniel was...

“They’re family now.” I looked at her. “You married Daniel,” she continued. “So in a way, we’re all family now. I want them to feel welcome.” I didn’t know what to say. So I...

“You don’t even have a husband,” Vanessa laughed, pushing the surrogacy contract toward me. “What are you saving your body for?” Dad placed a pen beside my hand. “For once, do something useful for...

Vanessa was the first to regain her composure. “You’re being dramatic.” I settled back in my chair. “Then read it aloud.” Dad slammed his palm against the table. “Stop interrogating your sister.” “I’m not.”...

Chapter 1: The Sunk Cost of Blood I’m thirty-one, and for three straight years, I had essentially been paying to preserve the fantasy that I still had a family. I live in Raleigh, North...

Chapter 2: Skin in the Game We reached my parents’ cracked asphalt driveway at exactly four that afternoon. The winter cold had teeth, and the air carried the sharp smell of woodsmoke with snow...