It simply had nothing to do with me, and it did not lift one ounce of the concrete off my memory of that afternoon.

Two things were true at once: he was a victim of his mother, and he was the man who locked me in the cold.

The first was hers to grieve.

The second was mine to survive, and I did.

Chapter 16 — The Plan Was Bigger Than Christopher Knew

They took me back to the hospital that night, and I spent two days there while the surgeons made sure the fall had not destroyed the hardware in my leg.