The judge asked my son which parent he wanted to live with—then he pulled out a recorder that revealed the truth.

Mason kept rubbing his hands against his pants, jumpy at every raised voice. Lucas sat unnervingly still.

That worried me more.

Lucas used to be the kid with a hundred questions before breakfast. He used to sing in the bathtub and tape drawings to the fridge. But after Daniel left, something in him shifted.

He went quiet.

Too quiet.

Like a little boy who’d continue reading …