She nodded as though checking a rule she had been uncertain about for years.

Later that week, she drew our family.

There was me, Piper, Lena, Gabriel, and a surprising number of animals.

She placed Wyatt on a separate sheet of paper.

I wondered whether to ask why, but her therapist had reminded me that children’s drawings are not court testimony or secret codes that adults must decode.

When I said I liked the colors, she told me matter-of-factly, “Daddy lives somewhere else.”

“Yes,” I answered.