It is a thing that can only be given, over years, and Chloe’s family were not the ones who were going to give it.

Chapter 25 — The Nightmares, and the Law

Lucas was discharged two days later.

His hands healed.

The bruise faded.

The frostnip resolved, and the doctors, my own colleagues, assured me he would carry no lasting physical mark of that night.

But there was a mark that did not fade so quickly, and for weeks afterward my son woke in the dark, crying out into his own bedroom, “I didn’t take it!

I promise I didn’t take it!”