“Did anyone ask you what you wanted to do, Cedric?”

He shook his head. Then he looked up at me. “Are you leaving me, Mom?”

That single question almost broke the calm I’d managed to hold all morning. I pulled him close, holding him tightly against my chest. “No, Cedric. I am absolutely not leaving you.”

“Do you promise?”

“I promise.”

I carried him downstairs because he asked me to, even though he was getting too big for it and his legs hung awkwardly against my side. When we reached the foyer, the whole room went quiet again.