There was nothing won; those kids had lost their father and three years and a great deal more no child should lose.

I cried because it was finally, permanently true, in the eyes of the law and the whole world: nobody could ever send them back.

They were mine to keep safe now.

On paper.

Forever.

Chapter 14 — A Lost Crayon

You want to know when I first believed they were going to be okay, and I can tell you the exact moment, and it was not a big one, which is how you know it was real.

It was maybe a year in.