There is a special kind of ugliness in exploiting a child’s hope like that, and I watched it happen at close range for three years.

No child should have to develop that skill.

Mine had, and I had let her, and watching her wait that morning I felt the shame of it fresh all over again.

Chapter 6 — The Drugstore Bag

When the grandchildren had all been served, Beatrice turned, at last, toward Chloe, and for just a fraction of a second, her warm hostess smile faltered into something else.

“Oh, look,” she said, and her voice took on a particular sugary tone I had learned to dread, the tone she used when she was about to do something cruel and dress it up as kindness.