“I wasn’t scared.”
“No?”
“I knew you didn’t do it.”
Gavin smiled sadly.
“Sometimes believing the truth and proving it are very different things.”
Chloe thought about that.
“Then maybe people should look harder before deciding they know everything.”
Gavin glanced at her.
“That is a very wise thing for an eight-year-old to say.”
“I’m nine now.”
“You’re right. I missed your birthday.”
Chloe lifted her head.
“You didn’t miss it. I saved it.”
“What do you mean?”
She ran inside and returned carrying a small wrapped box.
“I told Grandma I didn’t want to open my last present until you came home.”
Gavin stared at the box.
“You waited a whole year?”
She placed it in his hands.
“I knew you would come back.”
Inside was a silver picture frame.
It held a photograph taken before Gavin’s arrest.
