word remained suspended in the air like a warning.
She blinked hard and quickly added, “But it’s okay. It’s probably true. She really is smarter than me.”
Her voice cracked on that final word, and it nearly broke me.
I crouched down before her, holding her cold hands in mine. “None of that is true,” I said, steady but firm. “They weren’t being truthful. They were being unkind. Jokes that hurt people aren’t jokes.”
She shook her head, tears shining but refusing to fall. “But if I can’t handle it,
