Samuel turned to Sasha too quickly. “You shouldn’t even be thinking like that,” he said.

The words hit harder than he intended.

Sasha recoiled—not outwardly, but in the small closing of her face. Nathan looked from one parent to the other, suddenly more afraid of the room than of the news.

Samuel may have defended the right idea, but he had not shepherded the heart in front of him.

The question would not disappear.

It would simply stop being spoken aloud.