And I held him until it did.

Chapter 3 — The Timeline

That afternoon, while Theo played with his cars on the living room rug, well within my sight, I sat very still on the couch and did the cold, careful work of assembling a timeline, because I had learned long ago that clarity is the only thing that survives a shock like this one.

About six weeks earlier, on a Tuesday, Theo had spiked a sudden high fever.

I’d had an unmissable client negotiation that morning — the kind you cannot reschedule — and Solomon had been unusually, generously insistent that he would handle it. Go, handle your meeting, he’d told me over breakfast, smooth and easy. My mom’s coming over to help me watch him.