I could not undo the months Kelly had already spent as my protector.

But I could end them, cleanly, with a single clear declaration that the arrangement was over, that I had it now, that she was free to go.

And I said it as plainly as I have ever said anything, because it was the most important thing I would ever tell her: that a child’s job is to be a child, that the adults are supposed to do the protecting, that I was sorry it had taken me so long to remember it, and that from this moment on, I never would again.

Chapter 18 — The Fallout