Now I could choose what mattered without apologizing.

It wasn’t extravagance.

It was the discovery that the home could serve the people who actually lived in it.

Before bed Brielle hugged me and said, “I like it here when it’s quiet.”

I promised myself we would keep working toward that kind of quiet: not silence enforced by fear, but the ordinary peace of children who could relax.

PART 18

Olivia Comes Back