He asked a couple more questions and then wanted to know whether his grandmother liked dogs.

I was grateful that Mason could be curious without being made the keeper of our guilt.

One night, after he had fallen asleep at my house during a scheduled visit, I found the old cedar-box letter in the drawer where I kept important documents.

Lauren had allowed me to make a copy.

I read it again, this time without the panic I’d felt on Christmas Eve.

Her words were still painful, but they also held a lesson I wanted never to forget: silence can have consequences far beyond what the person choosing it intends.