"If you want me to come along, I will absolutely come along," Frank assured. He thought Nina's friend Inej might be a better choice, if only because she was someone Nina had known for years, someone that meant something to Nina outside of the context of Darrow.

He sipped the tea he'd brought over for himself.

"I think it's more important that you do what's right for you," he said softly. "Not to erase his presence. But because you're the one that's here, you're the one making the choices. I hate to keep comparing things to me and Maria, but you know--she had to make those choices because I just wasn't there. If she wanted to know if Frankie and Lisa were a boy or girl, if she was going to tell me, when, all that stuff. Because she was the one that was there, going through it. I don't know how different it would have been if I was there."