EMBER’S POV

I do not know what to do with that.

I’ve spent my whole life being the woman people look through. Being looked at like this, like I am something, makes my skin feel two sizes too small.

I am busy, not knowing what to do with my own face when one of them just—leaves.

She breaks right out of the line, a little older woman, small and fast, and she is already crying before she gets to us, which, I want to be clear, no one had warned me was on the agenda.

“You brought someone home.” She says it to Knox, and then she says it again,...