Theo’s smile faded, and he shrank back slightly against my leg, and that small movement told me everything about how the boy still felt regarding his grandmother’s house.

“We are not,” I said evenly, “discussing custody arrangements in front of our son.”

“You always have to control everything, don’t you,” Solomon sneered.

And then Theo, looking up at his father with big worried eyes, asked the question that changed the entire course of the divorce — not because I planned it, but because a child, unlike the adults around him, simply says the true thing that is on his heart.

“Daddy,” he asked, “is Grandma Charlotte still mad at me?”