Emma Signed Over Her Kitchen Island to Keep Toby Safe in Massachusetts

his yellow vocabulary workbook. He twirled a yellow pencil between his fingers, his eyes fixed on the floor.

“Mom, I cannot find the word for the third sentence,” he said, his voice soft and halting.

I pulled out a stool for him at the quartz island, far away from where Daniel had been sitting.

“Let me see,” I said, leaning over his continue reading …