Ugh, more with the death. It served her right for bringing him here. “Nope. Your silly appendix just decided it was time to come out.” She tickled his tummy.

In truth, the pediatrician had missed the signs, mistaking Tommy’s stomachache for constipation. When his appendix ruptured, it was life-threatening, compounded by the hospital not having enough of Tommy’s rare blood type on hand. She remembered the terror—Evan running into the hospital, panicked—and them both thinking, but not saying, Why us?

Tommy rubbed the scar on the lower right side of his abdomen. Then came the barrage of questions. Where do you go when you die? Why do we bury dead people? Do worms eat your body? When would I die? How about Daddy or Maggie or Matt? Liv noticed he didn’t ask about Danny. It shouldn’t have surprised her. After all, he’d never met Danny in person. Her oldest son had forbidden any of his siblings from visiting him in prison. Tommy had seen photos of Danny, and knew he was in jail for something he didn’t do. But his big brother was like a storybook character, a fable, a superhero, a legend fueled by Evan Pine.

“You want to get some ice cream?” Liv asked, trying to change the subject.

Her son’s questions stayed with Liv as she watched ice cream drip down Tommy’s arm at Sullivan’s Ice Cream. She’d been thinking a lot about death herself lately, but she supposed it was her age, her father’s condition, perhaps. Maybe it was Evan’s blowout fight with Matt over the holidays, the two still not speaking to each other. Maybe it was the Supreme Court denying Danny’s appeal. Maybe it was Maggie graduating and soon leaving them for college. Maybe it was knowing this town, her childhood community, hated her.

She scanned the ice cream shop. Only a few customers sat at the small circular tables, and no one seemed to be paying them any mind. The girl behind the counter was about fifteen, so maybe she didn’t know or care about the documentary.

“A Violent Nature” had been a blessing and a curse. A blessing, since it had rallied the public—not to mention some top lawyers offering pro bono assistance—to help Danny. A curse, because it subjected her family to the ugly in the world, the haters, mostly disappointed middle-aged men sitting behind computer screens and spewing venom.