“I don’t want to push it now.”

“You don’t have to.”

She nodded and returned to her drawing.

The conversation lasted only a few minutes.

It would not be their last, but nobody in the room knew that yet.

Clara watched him leave, then looked at the list of adult contacts beside her bed.

For the first time, she did not see only a record of how much she needed.

She saw people who had agreed to answer.