Every night, before she goes to sleep, we have a little tradition.
I tuck her blanket around her shoulders, kiss her forehead, and ask the same question.
“What’s the most important thing you know?”
She smiles and answers:
“That I deserve to be safe.”
“And what else?”
“That I can always tell you the truth.”
I switch off the bedside lamp.
“That’s right, sweetheart.”
Then, just before I close the door, she always calls out one last thing.
“Grandma?”
“Yes, Chloe?”
“Thank you for finding me.”
And every single time, my heart breaks and heals a little at once.
Because the day I leaned over my granddaughter’s coffin, I thought I was saying goodbye to the little girl I loved most in the world.
Instead, I was being given one final chance to save her.
And I will spend the rest of my life making sure that chance was not wasted.
