She didn’t invite me upstairs, but she didn’t hang up, either.

We stayed on the phone for another twenty minutes talking about their birthdays, allergies, teachers, and the small rituals of a life I had missed.

I learned that Henry hated bananas, Mason collected subway maps, Theo kept a notebook of experiments, and Wyatt loved a stuffed whale with one missing fin.

I wrote every detail down, then read the list twice before bed.

Lauren first consulted a child psychologist in Manhattan, Dr.