Esperanza looked at the paper, then at her mother, then back at the drawing. A dramatic sigh escaped her tiny body, the expression so exaggerated that Seraphine almost laughed despite the tension.
"I can," the little girl said, sounding completely unimpressed. "But you have to believe everything I tell you."
Seraphine's heart squeezed with emotion. After everything that had happened recently, she couldn't imagine dismissing her daughter now. Not when these drawings were showing impossible things.
Not when every picture seemed tied to secrets no one should know. "I do believe you," she said softly. "I believe everything you tell me, sweetheart."
Relief washed over Esperanza's face, as if she had been worried about exactly that. "Good." She settled comfortably against her pillows.
