I had earned it, I thought.

He had earned it.

We had done the work, survived the process, stood up in a courtroom and made it official, and now we were simply going to be a mother and a son, learning each other’s habits, growing comfortable, building the ordinary unremarkable life that is the whole reward for all that difficulty.

I was so sure of it that I had entirely stopped watching for trouble, which is of course exactly when trouble arrives.

I did not know that Silas had been carrying something the entire time.