Sophie was six weeks from graduating and had four college acceptances on the refrigerator and had not answered any of them.

I put the letter on the kitchen table where everyone could see it, which I had learned to do, because in this family a thing hidden is a thing that grows.

Noah read it standing up. “Can they actually let him out?”

“He’s served most of the financial counts,” I said. “The obstruction runs concurrent. Bennett walked me through it last year.”

Ethan didn’t touch it. He read it from where he was sitting, upside down, which is a thing he does.

“So somebody has to talk,” he said.