“Can I help?”
Benjamin grinned.
“Only if you promise not to steal my blanket tonight.”
She laughed.
Then the other girls wandered into the kitchen, one after another, drawn by the sound of our voices.
Soon everyone was talking at once.
Arguing about breakfast.
Teasing each other.
Making plans.
For years, I had believed those sounds belonged to a life I could never recover.
Now I understood that healing didn’t mean returning to the past.
It meant learning how to carry the people we’d lost while still making room for the people who remained.
I looked around the kitchen.
Five daughters.
One son.
Six beautiful children who still needed me.
Three children and a husband I would love forever.
And one battered teddy bear that had carried the truth for five years.
I reached for Sophie’s hand.
“You know something, sweetheart?”
“What, Mom?”
“You saved our family.”
