“She’s right in the middle of a long math worksheet, Val,” he said.

“Don’t distract her right now.”

“Trevor, put her on the phone.”

“I’ll have her call you before bedtime,” he said.

“Just think about staying longer.

It makes sense for all of us.”

He hung up before I had a chance to ask why he was looking at my project calendar.

At a quarter to eleven I went down to the hotel lobby for a bottle of water, my phone in my hand.

When the screen lit up with a call from our home number in Dublin, I picked up on the second ring.

“Mom?” Sadie said in a whisper.

“Sadie, sweetheart, are you all right?” I asked, moving toward a quiet corner by the front glass doors.

“Why are you whispering?”

“Grandma Colleen’s here,” Sadie said quietly.

“She carried two big gray filing boxes into your office.”