CNU-My daughter-in-law said Christmas would be easier if I stayed away, and my son did not even raise his eyes to defend me. So I stayed home, alone, exactly as requested. …
I looked at him—at the boy who had once asked why family wouldn’t simply protect family, at the girl beside him who now knew rules were not decorations, at the house still standing above the lake because some things are worth refusing to sell away piece by piece.
