I looked away because the words hurt precisely because they were true.
“I was protecting him.”
“Sometimes he needed you to,” Chloe said gently. “But sometimes he only needed three extra seconds.”
Three seconds.
That was all.
Three seconds before I ordered for him. Before I answered for him. Before I fixed something. Before I stepped between my son and a world I was convinced would never be patient enough.
“I should’ve told you more,” Chloe admitted. “I was wrong about that. But I wanted Leo to come home and tell you whatever he wanted to tell you. I wanted him to have one place that belonged to him before all of us turned it into another plan for Leo.”
Then Marcy handed me a white card. LEO was printed across the top, with blank spaces underneath for dates and hours.
“What is this?”
“His time card.”
I stared at her.
