She was gentle about it.

She was also required to document everything, and she did, in a chart that would end up in a courtroom later.

Two days later, Finn had his interview at the Children’s Advocacy Center.

I wasn’t allowed in the room with him.

I sat on a sofa beneath a painting of a cartoon whale, holding a paper cup of coffee I never touched, while a woman named Ms.

Vance talked with my son behind a closed door for fifty minutes.