I did not pull the thread.

I told myself, again, that I would do all of it after the birthday, as though my daughter’s eighth birthday were a wall the truth had agreed to wait politely behind.

Chapter 5 — We Are With Danny Today

By a quarter to three the next afternoon Lily stood in front of the hallway mirror in her purple crown, in a clean shirt, with the taped sneaker hidden under the hem of her jeans where I had tucked it.

The doorbell rang at 2:57 and she ran for it and I got there first, and it was Marcus, carrying a bag of ice, grinning.