He loved us, Carver almost says, he wanted us to live. But the words catch sharp in his throat. He just takes a steadying breath, and lets it go. He focuses on the braids, on getting everything smooth and neat.

"Luis didn't, either," he replies quietly. "No one had any right to do that to you."

It shouldn't have happened. But it did. And he tries to fight back the brittle, hurting part of himself that says it needed to. That it made them strong enough to endure the true test.