My medication was still sitting on the nightstand in my bedroom, behind the locked door. My doctor had been very clear that I couldn’t skip it. Hattie looked at me from the kitchen doorway and told me to go get what belonged to me, then come straight back. I drove fifty minutes north through the darkness and reached Pinewood Circle shortly before ten. The Ashcrofts’ black Suburban was still in the driveway, and every first-floor light was on. I parked down the block beneath a magnolia tree and approached the house through the shadows along the side yard.

Then I looked through the hallway window. Upstairs, Lorraine Ashcroft, Ellie’s mother, stood outside my bedroom door in a pale yellow Easter dress. My mother was beside her, pressing a tissue against her face. Ellie stood behind them, holding Grant’s arm with both hands. My father waited at the far end of the hallway, staring at the carpet. Lorraine gently placed her palm against my bedroom door and asked my mother, “May I?” My mother nodded. Then Lorraine bowed her head and began to pray. I stood outside in the darkness, completely still. A stranger was praying over my bedroom door as though the person who belonged inside would never walk through it again.