He looked at the boys discussing the museum map and added, “I should have asked harder questions eight years ago.”

“You should have,” I said.

“I cannot change that.

But I can stop choosing silence.”

For the first time, I believed a Holloway might be learning something that mattered.

PART 16

The first truly difficult setback arrived in March.

Tristan had promised to attend a small weekend robotics demonstration where the boys’ school team would show an automated snow-clearing model.