My husband pushed me down the stairs, and as I lay shattered at the bottom, my mother-in-law called my father and said, “Come get your worthless daughter and take her back.” Dad gave her only one warning: “If she has so much as a scratch, your family will answer for it.” They laughed at him because they had absolutely no idea who my father truly was.

“That’s a kind wish,” he said.

“But you don’t have to make it happen.

It’s the grown-ups’ job to behave well.”

Lily seemed satisfied.

She hopped off the step and ran to inspect the sunflower.

That evening, after I tucked her into bed, I sat with Dad under the porch light.

I told him I had once believed a good mother could keep all sadness away from her child.

“No parent can do that,” he said.