It made them insufficient.

I understood then that money could provide stability, education, medical care, and opportunities.

Those things mattered.

But it could not manufacture fifteen minutes of attention on an ordinary Tuesday, or a parent who listened without checking his phone.

That had to be chosen again and again.

PART 21: The Hardest Question

Near the end of summer Sophie asked to speak with me alone for twenty minutes while Marianne waited in the adjacent café.

We met in a library reading room with glass walls, where she could leave whenever she wanted.