If there was going to be a way forward, it would be on a different foundation entirely, one where I was believed by default, the way he had always been — or there would be no way forward at all.

He stood on the pavement with nothing to say.

I got in the car with my son in my arms, and Matthias stood under the streetlight and wept as we pulled away, and I think it was the first time he understood that the deepest heartbreak doesn’t always shout.

Sometimes it just closes a door and drives away.

Chapter 18 — The Months After

The months that followed were quiet, and they changed things I hadn’t known needed changing.