
The first time my dog growled at me, twenty-three people in downtown Denver were taking their last conscious breath. I…

The mug of peppermint tea in my hand steamed like a tiny Boston winter as I paused in my own…

By the time I heard the thudding from beneath my feet, my wife had already spent nearly two weeks in…

The night my parents kicked me out of the house I bought for them, you could see the Manhattan skyline…

The pregnancy test lay on the cracked bathroom sink like a tiny neon sign announcing the end of Emma Hayes’s…

The first time Sarah Chen made an entire room of Americans forget to breathe, it wasn’t in Carnegie Hall or…

The first time my sister blew up my life, it was on a quiet American street in the middle of…

By the time I saw the green highway sign that said “Canada – 57 Miles,” I was already screaming at…

By the time the blizzard swallowed the last highway sign in the Colorado Rockies, the world outside Jax Thorne’s cabin…

By the time the first tray hit the floor, half the mess hall at Naval Station Norfolk had already gone…

By the time the sun rose over the Atlantic, turning the North Carolina sky the color of ripe peaches, my…

By the time the sun cleared the razor wire and satellite dishes, the American flag above the California base was…

The bouquet sailed over my head like a bright pink comet, everyone screamed, and my sister grabbed the microphone just…

Snow needled the windshield like a thousand tiny warnings as Logan Ashford’s minivan barreled down Maple Street, the green “Welcome…

By the time the CEO called me a loser, the Empire State Building was glittering through the Waldorf Astoria windows…

The Christmas lights on my Virginia porch were still flickering when the engine roared—deep, polished, unmistakably expensive. I froze at…

By the time the confetti cannons went off in the University of Michigan medical school auditorium, my marriage was already…

By the time my manager told me my entire worth to the company was four hundred dollars, the sun was…

The first time my jeans cleared the second–story window and landed on the lawn beside the American flag my wife…

The sound of my house key hitting the granite counter in our Manhattan penthouse was louder than Ashton’s crystal tumbler…