“I know. I just wanted you to know I’m not asking him to reverse anything.”

“All right.” She left.

I later gave the owl to Lily and told her it had come from her cousins. She hugged it immediately. “Grandma?”

“No. The boys.”

She smiled. “My boys.” I did not correct her. They were her cousins, but in the language of a three-year-old, people she loved belonged to her.

Chapter 10 — Rebuilding

My mother’s first genuine apology arrived eight months after the mall. She did not call. She wrote a single handwritten page.