That question is the thing I would take back if I could take back only one.

She had endured everything to protect my mission, and I came home and asked if she’d betrayed me.

I understood the truth one day later.

She had to live one more day inside my doubt before I did, and no verdict against my mother and brother will ever fully settle what I owe her for that day.

Chapter 5 — What Was Signed

That afternoon I found what she couldn’t say out loud.