Kit drove a little faster than she should have down her brother's street. It wasn't that she was so anxious to get her letter, but rather to find out what had gotten her brother so upset. She knew Lemony well enough to know that the fact that he had read the letter wasn't what bothered him. It must have been its content.

She parked her car in the garage and walked around to the front of the house to find him sitting on his front porch waiting for her. To Kit's surprise, he was looking back over the letter. That wasn't like him. She would have expected him to leave it in the envelope until she got there.

She knew it must be serious, so she cut straight to the case, "Who was it from, Lemony?"

Without a word, he handed her the letter, and she skipped over the contents to gaze at the signature at the bottom of the page: Olaf. Oh dear. No wonder Lemony was upset.

"I...I should have told you. I'm sorry," was all she could think of to say. It wasn't nearly good enough, nor did her apology change anything, but it was the best she could come up with.

He continued to surprise her: rather than get angry and yell at her, he just sat back down in his chair, still not saying a word. Kit decided she would have preferred for him to get angry. This was unbearable.

"Lemony, please say something."

"What? What do you want me to say?" he muttered. He sounded heartbroken. "There aren't words, Kit." That was something she would have never expected him to say. Anything that made her rhetorical analyst brother speechless was something serious indeed.

"I'm sorry," Kit repeated. Her eyes were filling up with tears despite her best efforts to control herself.

"Did you even read the letter?" He looked up into her eyes, but she couldn't read anything from his expression. It was completely blank.

"Not yet," she whispered.

"Read it."

She didn't really want to read the letter in front of Lemony, but it became instantly clear that she didn't really have any choice. She knew it couldn't be good; she and Olaf weren't exactly on the best terms lately, especially since he had come under the suspicions of the other volunteers for some things that happened in his past. Kit swallowed hard as she held up the letter and began to read.

The tears were flowing freely now. She had hoped that maybe there was some chance of reconciliation with Olaf, but now she knew that it was hopeless. She stared at the words in disbelief, dumbfounded. She avoided Lemony's eyes, which she knew were watching her intently. She noticed in her peripheral vision that he was standing up. He surprised her yet again. Her dear brother put his arm around her, and she leaned on his shoulder and just let her tears pour down.

When she was finally able to compose herself, Kit looked up at Lemony. "Kit," he murmured.

"Yes?"

"I hate to say this, and I don't mean to sound impolite, but perhaps now you understand how I feel. You cannot truly understand the feeling until you experience it for yourself." In that moment, Kit realized that her brother was one of the most amazing people she had ever met. He had handled his heartbreak so much better than she had.

"I'm so sorry, Lemony," she said again, laying her head on his shoulder once more. Even though Kit was going through one of the toughest things she had ever experienced, she still held onto the happiness that came from being able to share this moment with her brother. She loved him more at that moment than she ever had before.