At the time Brooke had been in college and hadn’t looked closely at the accompanying paperwork.

She promised to search her old emails.

I told her to send anything she found directly to Sandra rather than confront our parents.

Before leaving, Harper hugged Chloe so tightly they nearly fell into the hallway table.

Chloe laughed, a full, startled laugh I hadn’t heard since before Christmas.

Then she asked when they could visit again.

“Soon,” I promised, “when everyone agrees to be kind.” This time I did not intend to treat the word kind as an optional decoration.

PART 12