Hannah had not asked for either.

Instead, I wrote in a notebook: Things I want to give my daughter that no one can confiscate.

The first was a truthful answer when she asked a difficult question.

The second was permission to disagree with me.

The third was the knowledge that she did not owe love in exchange for safety.

I stared at the list.

Those were things Hannah had spent six years trying to teach me, and I had listened only when it was almost too late.

PART 18