“Callie! Are you burning something?”

He frowned. “No.”

The omelet in the pan was turning black. I laughed so hard I had to lean against the counter, and Buddy began barking like joy had a sound he recognized. Callahan laughed too then—the first real laugh since the night before.

“The kitchen,” I said through tears and laughter, “belongs to me now.”

That became my first official decision as a married woman.

Buddy stretched out beneath the table like a witness at peace negotiations and wagged his tail every time either of us laughed.

For the first time in years, I no longer feel ashamed of my scars.

I finally understand that what happened to me was never my fault. And the one person who knew the ugliest truth attached to it still looked at me, through nothing but darkness, and found something worth loving.