You cannot buy a child’s sense of belonging with electronics and envelopes of cash.

You can only build it, slowly, with presence, and Caleb had been building it since Chloe was four, one steamed dress and one wiped scuff and one packed lunch at a time.

Chapter 5 — Eight Forty-Seven

At exactly eight forty-seven on Christmas morning, Beatrice began distributing the gifts, and she did it with the theatrical, ceremonial gravity of an official presiding over something sacred.

This was one of her favorite moments of the year, the gift distribution, because it placed her at the very center of the family’s attention, the source of all bounty, the hand from which good things flowed.