“I was mad sometimes,” she admitted.
“You had every right to be.”
“At you.”
Gavin closed his eyes briefly. “I know.”
“I thought maybe if you didn’t go to Martin’s house, everything would be normal.”
His voice broke. “I thought that too.”
“But then Denise said sometimes bad things happen because someone else makes a wrong choice. And kids don’t have to carry grown-up choices.”
Gavin looked toward Denise, who sat quietly near the wall pretending not to listen.
“Denise sounds smart,” he said.
“She is.” Chloe hesitated. “But I still missed you.”
“I missed you every day.”
“Every day?”
“Every single one.”
She opened the notebook to a blank page and handed him a pencil.
“Then write it.”
He blinked. “Write what?”
“Every day.”
The pencil looked small in his hand. His fingers trembled as he pressed it to the paper.
Every day.
He wrote slowly, carefully, as if the words might break.
