I smiled.

“That’s a better answer.”

Outside, the lanterns moved gently in the evening breeze.

Oliver slept upstairs, exhausted by cake, new faces, and the accomplishment of taking three independent steps.

I touched the worn necklace that had belonged to Evelyn and thought about how she had tried to protect me by keeping a painful truth out of reach.

I would not raise my son that way.

I would tell him the truth in words he could understand as he grew.