I used to replay the night of my bachelorette party and hear only my own anger. Now, when I lie awake in the thin dark of my rented bedroom, I hear Claire’s voice instead: shaking, urgent, asking me to cancel the wedding. I see her leaving the phone and the note with Megan, trusting that if she couldn’t stop me in time, the truth eventually would.

My days are quiet now. I work, cook simple meals, and sit on the floor with boxes of Claire’s things, learning her in ways I never bothered to when she was alive. I’ve stopped calling her “difficult” in my head. The word I use now is brave. She loved me enough to risk being hated. Ryan’s betrayal split my life into a before and after, but Claire’s final act stitched a bridge between them. I couldn’t save her. She still saved me.