There is a particular loneliness in being a child surrounded by adults who all see that you are being hurt and all, for their own reasons, look away.

Chloe had been that lonely, in that beautiful house, for three years, in a crowd.

Chapter 7 — To Caleb’s Girl

At the very bottom of the bag, under the tissue, sat a four-dollar vanilla-scented candle in a cheap glass jar, the kind sold three-for-ten at any drugstore in the country.

And I want to be honest about something, because it matters: the cheap candle was not what broke my heart.

Chloe was never a greedy child.