We’re not giving up without trying.’

It would have been easier to promise an outcome.

I wanted to give him certainty so badly that it hurt.

But I remembered what a broken promise sounded like to a child, and I would not become another adult who offered words he could not keep.

A clerk named Eleanor came out of the courtroom with a clipboard.

She was small, with silver-framed glasses and a navy cardigan.

She checked our case number and gave the children a gentle smile.