She did something far more effective.

She simply stopped protecting him from the truth, and let it do to him what it would.

He came back the following Saturday.

He didn’t bring store-bought cookies; he brought two coffees from a real diner and a book of word puzzles, and he came back the Saturday after that, and he started calling on Wednesday evenings, not about the bills, but to ask about her day.

Natalie visited often, and brought Veronica, and the empty afternoons in room seven filled up with people.