“Every single one,” I said.

“And we can eat pancakes for dinner if you want.”

She smiled at that, but only briefly.

Later I heard her talking to her rabbit in the guest bedroom.

“It’s okay,” she whispered.

“Daddy says we can stay.” I stood outside the door until my legs stopped shaking.

I had handled hostile acquisitions, lawsuits, and angry boardrooms.

None of them had taught me how to make a child believe a promise adults had repeatedly broken around her.