Chapter 76 Today will be hard

***Gideon***

I keep telling myself this is logistics.

I keep telling myself this is what I do. I solve problems. I move resources. I make phone calls that change outcomes.

But Hazel is on my couch with a legal pad on her knee, tears sliding down her face like they do not have permission to exist, and the lie tastes like metal.

She has the funeral home on speaker.

Her pen moves fast, hard, like if