And everyone was kind about it.

They promised us we’d see each other on holidays.

They promised us we’d keep in touch, that it wasn’t really goodbye, that we were still a family, just — apart.”

Chapter 8 — What They Promised

“That seven-year-old boy,” I say, “spent the next eleven years in nine different foster homes.

Some fine.

Some not.

He spent every birthday wondering how old his sisters were now, what they looked like, whether they were safe.