Daniel read the last one and turned the phone face-down on the granite. “She isn’t sorry.”

“No,” I said. “She’s sorry she got caught without a script.”

By nightfall the extended family had fractured, and not in Patricia’s favor.

Claire broke first. She called me, her voice catching. “Emma, I’m so sorry. I should have noticed Mia wasn’t with us.”

“You had your own toddlers to wrangle, Claire.”

“That’s not an excuse. When we came through the mall doors I asked Mom where Mia was. She didn’t even blink. She said you and Daniel had come to get her because she was throwing a tantrum.