“You told us he didn’t want to hang out with us.

I told Noelle not to send him beach pictures so he wouldn’t feel left out!”

“Stay out of this, Toby, it’s grown-up business — ”

“Everything went wrong, all right?!” Declan threw his hands up, cornered now.

“I made a mistake!

But nobody died!”

And then he heard it, a half-second too late.

Because my mother had died.