The system that had failed Mira for years by looking away was now, at last, looking hard, and I would not have wanted it any other way, even when the looking was aimed at me.

When the caseworker finally wrote her recommendation, it meant something precisely because she had not been easy to convince.

She had done for Mira what no adult had done before: she had refused to take she seems fine for an answer.

“Am I here because my mom’s in trouble?” she asked.

I knelt to her eye level.

“You’re here because the grown-ups need to make sure you’re safe.”