Because we were both, at the same moment, looking at Holly.

Chapter 12 — She Reached Into Her Purse

She had already seen it.

Of course she had; children always see the thing you hope they’ll miss.

She was looking at the card that reduced her to a single cold word, and her face did not crumple, and she did not cry, and she did not turn to me with the wet pleading look that would have broken my heart and started the war on her behalf.

Instead, my seven-year-old daughter reached into the small beaded purse Brandon had bought her for the trip.