It was the inevitable result of the burden itself.

A child carrying that much cash, that regularly, on foot, alone, was always going to be at risk.

The mugging was not bad luck.

It was the burden coming due.

Chapter 23 — A Nightmare No Child Should Face

I stood in that kitchen and listened to my thirteen-year-old son calmly describe being cornered and threatened by older boys who wanted to rob him, and the tears ran down my face, because no child should ever have to live through a single moment of what he was describing, let alone carry it alone and tell no one.

“I got away,” Caleb said, and he did not dwell on the how, and I did not ask him to, because the how did not matter, only that he was standing here in front of me.