The word was quiet.

No one else heard it.

It changed the room anyway.

That week Ruth asked me to help sort Daniel’s photographs.

We sat on the living room rug with boxes spread between us, laughing at pictures of Tobias wearing enormous Halloween costumes and frowning at birthday cakes he was supposedly too grown-up to enjoy.

One photograph showed Ruth outside the adoption office holding a baby carrier.

Daniel stood beside her, terrified and radiant.