Lily asked one question — “Can I still shoot?” — and Dr. Anand said yes, and Lily said “okay” and did not cry until they were in the car.

Daniel had been braced for the crying. What he had not been braced for was that she never mentioned it again. She had played every day since she was eight, and after that afternoon she did not say the word for a year and a half, and Daniel — who had spent the whole two hours in that office preparing what he would say — never found a way to raise it.

He reduced his working hours and attended every appointment. Her school friends visited often. Owen sent a new drawing each week.

Melissa came alone once, carrying a casserole and an apology. “I should have spoken up years ago,” she told Daniel.

“You spoke up when it mattered.”

She looked toward Lily, asleep on the couch, for a long moment, and something crossed her face that Daniel could not read and did not ask about.