It was not the face of a grieving widower who’d been refused help.

It was the face of a man who’d just felt a reliable machine skip a gear.

Chapter 4 — The Untouched Ice Cream

That night Ellard couldn’t sleep.

He kept hearing Percy’s voice, small and careful on the bench.

He kept seeing the ice cream the boy had let melt to nothing, untouched, which Percy never did.