Chapter 23 — The Taxi Home

In the back of the taxi, Leo stared out the window at the lights of the city sliding past, and for a long time neither of us spoke.

Then, in a very small voice, without turning from the glass, he said, “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“For what, sweetheart?” I asked.

“For causing a scene,” he said.

And I pulled him against me, there in the dark of the cab, and I held him, and I said the thing I would spend the next year making sure he truly believed.

“Listen to me, Leo.