“He said if I tell, they’ll take me away and nobody gets to keep me.”

“Who would take you away?”

She looked up and didn’t answer, and that was an answer.

“Mommy said don’t tell anybody,” she said.

“Not even you.”

She pushed her face into the rabbit’s head.

I put a hand on the newel post and let it take some of my weight.

“Does it hurt when you sit?”