An explanation is not the same thing as an excuse.

But there was a strange peace in hearing him admit the choice I’d suspected all along.

The woman who had almost died while he attended a birthday party was not a person he had failed to understand.

She was a person he had decided not to hear.

PART 19

When Oliver was ten weeks old, Vance attended his first arranged visit at a family services center.

We had established a temporary plan through legal counsel that respected Oliver’s age and routines.