For now, those responsibilities belonged to adults.

“Then why did he say I owed him?”

The question was so quiet I almost missed it.

I wrote down her words after our conversation, as Miriam had advised, without turning her into a witness at home.

Then I told her again that she did not owe anyone repayment for being a child.

She pushed back her chair and asked whether we could bake cinnamon rolls like the ones Laura used to love.

I said yes.