“You can use what’s left over to help other widowed single moms or something like that,” Sam said.

“I’d love to be able to do that, but wow. I’m so overwhelmed and thankful. All I’ve been able to think about is how would I support us while taking care of three little kids.”

“Now you can breathe a little easier,” Nick said.

“A lot easier.” Angela teared up and dabbed her eyes with a napkin.

“It’s okay, Mommy,” Jack said, taking them by surprise when he appeared in the doorway to the dining room. “Don’t cry.”

“I’ll try not to, baby.”

He went to sit with her, wiping away her tears and tucking her hair behind her ear the way he’d probably seen his father do many times.

His sweetness broke Sam’s heart.

“I’ll take care of you and Ella,” Jack said. “Daddy told me to take good care of you in case he couldn’t. I promised him I would.”

Angela gasped. “He said that?”

Jack nodded, his expression solemn.

“You don’t have to take care of me, honey. We’ll take care of each other, okay?”

“Daddy wanted me to look out for you and Ella and the baby.”

“You’re an amazing big brother, but we’re not your responsibility, okay? Your job is to play and have fun and do well in school.”

“And take care of you guys. I promised Daddy I would.”

“Daddy never should’ve asked you to do that, Jack. It’s too much to put on a seven-year-old.”

“I’m a big boy now. I can handle it.”

“We’ll talk about that later. I thought you were watching The Lion King.”

“We are, but I wanted to check on you.”

“You can go back to the movie. I’m fine. I swear. We’ll be up soon.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very sure.” She kissed him. “Thanks for checking on me.”

After they heard him run off to join the other kids upstairs, Angela’s expression turned thunderous. “How could he ask such a thing of a child? Did he know he was going to die? What the hell?”

“He knew he was playing with fire buying street drugs,” Sam said.

“But how could he ask Jack for that? He’s seven!”

“I don’t know,” Sam said, feeling as horrified by this as Angela was.

“If he wasn’t already dead,” Angela said, “I’d kill him for doing this to Jack. How could he?”

“We need to get him a therapist,” Sam said. “ASAP.”

“Yeah, I’m realizing that.” Angela shook her head. “I keep wondering what happened to my lovely life. Just over a year ago, everything was fine, and look at us now.” She wiped away more tears. “I’m a widow with a traumatized kid, another who won’t remember her dad and another who’ll never even meet him. And even when everything was awful, and it’s been awful for a long time, Spencer always loved me and treated me like I was the most important thing in his life. What am I supposed to do without that? Without him?”