Our counselor’s office had two comfortable chairs and a box of tissues on a low table.

There were no judges, no family elders, and no opportunity for Agnes to interrupt.

Lucas and I sat facing each other with more space between us than I would have thought possible three months earlier.

The counselor asked him to describe what had happened when I came home from the hospital.

He began with his mother’s stress and the long days he had worked.

She stopped him gently.