“My lists have been out of order all these years. Would you know that all this time, I believed lists started at one? I was wrong. Lists start at zero, and I’ve been skipping the beginning my entire life.”

Her hand turned in his—not to escape, but so her fingers could interlace with his. “What is zero, then?”

“Item zero,” Christian said. “It’s you, Judith.”

She let out a long, slow exhale.

“Nothing ever made sense because I was trying to sort everything into place from one to ten. That was the mistake. You are the start of every list I’ve ever made. You are the beginning, the zeroth item, the unspoken predicate of my heart”