She rested her head briefly against my shoulder, then sat up when Maya came looking for her.

There were no matching reactions I needed to collect from six daughters to prove they understood the past correctly.

They had lived different parts of it at different ages.

They could choose different ways of protecting the lives they had now.

Near the end of the evening, Chloe asked whether I was upset with her.

“No.”

“Not about the notebook?”

“I agreed.