I believed her.

She had baked birthday cakes and taught him to knit a crooked scarf.

Love had been present in those moments.

But love was not a permit to frighten a child or undermine his parent.

I told her that safe contact would depend on professional guidance, court orders, and demonstrated change, not on how much she cried in front of me.

Afterward, I sat in my car with both hands on the steering wheel.