capable. While Daniel knelt beside the bicycle, she asked about Emma, who was sitting near the window doing homework. When Emma dropped a colored pencil, Celeste picked it up and complimented her drawing. She returned with coffee for Daniel the following week and, a month later, invited both of them to a children's museum. After a long season of darkness, her attention felt like a door opening.
For a while, Celeste seemed to understand that Hannah would always be part of the family. She never asked Daniel to remove his wedding photograph. She listened when Emma talked about the paper-star birthday tradition. Once, when Emma became upset during a school concert because she saw other children waving to their mothers, Celeste sat beside her in the parking lot and waited until the tears passed. Daniel was grateful for the patience. His friends noticed that he looked rested again. When Celeste suggested that he and Emma spend more time at her spacious house, with its garden and upstairs bedrooms, he agreed because it seemed possible that the future might hold something other than loss.
The changes happened gradually enough to be mistaken for normal compromises. Celeste offered to redecorate Emma's bedroom, explaining that the faded butterfly curtains looked childish. The new room was beautiful, all pale blue and white, but the drawings Hannah had framed were packed away without asking Emma. When Daniel brought them back, Celeste apologized and said the interior designer had misunderstood. A month later, a photograph of Hannah disappeared from the living room bookshelf before a dinner party. Celeste said the cleaner had moved it. Then she suggested that Emma refer to her as a parent at school events, because it would simplify explanations. Daniel declined that request, and Celeste did not mention it again in front of him.
Emma heard something different. She noticed that Celeste's smile changed when Daniel left a room. If Emma asked to show friends a photograph of Hannah, Celeste told her not to dwell on sad things. If Emma mentioned her Aunt Lauren, Hannah's older sister, Celeste suggested they plan a visit another time, when schedules were less complicated. Once, after Emma cried because she could not find the little paper stars from an old birthday, Celeste sat on the edge of her bed and explained that growing up meant learning not to upset other people with memories they could not share. Emma was nine. She began apologizing whenever she mentioned her mother.