Like you did when he first left.”

Chapter 13 — I Didn’t Want You to Be Alone

I swallowed hard against the ache rising in my throat.

“And tonight?” I managed.

He looked up at me then, and his dark eyes were clear and steady and full of something far too old and far too fierce for a ten-year-old to have to feel.

“Tonight he wanted a whole room full of strangers to laugh at you,” he said.