‘But don’t erase the people who were.

They are part of our family, too.’

She showed him a photograph taken during that difficult week.

Theo was asleep beneath a quilt; Eli sat beside him with an arm around Meteor.

In the background, Mrs.

Alvarez had left a handwritten note with medication times.

Naomi kept the photograph because it reminded her that needing help wasn’t failure.

Preston asked whether Mrs.