Green marks.

Red marks.

Small notes beside ordinary childhood behavior.

Asked twice.

Argued about bedtime.

Wanted Dad after being told no.

One page had a reward written at the bottom.

FIFTEEN MINUTES IN THE STUDY.

Sebastian remembered that evening.

Teddy came in and sat on the leather chair while he worked.

He asked whether the shipping boats were larger than their house.

Sebastian answered without looking up.

After a while, Lavinia appeared and said Teddy’s time was finished.

He had waved goodbye.

He thought they were maintaining a bedtime routine.

Now he stared at the paper.

His son had earned a brief audience.

And Sebastian had barely paid attention during it.

That afternoon, he canceled a meeting and sat with the discomfort instead of replacing it with activity.

Then he called Mara.

“I need help making sure I don’t turn this into promises I can’t keep.”

She was quiet.

Finally, she said, “Start smaller than you want to.”

They discussed school mornings.

Telephone calls.

Work travel.

A predictable arrangement that did not depend on Teddy behaving well enough to receive it.

Sebastian also spoke with a child counselor.

He did not ask how to make Teddy forget the dinner.

He asked how to stop making his son responsible for protecting adults from the truth.

The answer involved patience.

Consistency.

Questions that did not suggest the reply.

And accepting that Teddy might be angry long after the cake was gone.

Sebastian could negotiate contracts lasting twenty years.

He was beginning to learn how little that skill helped when a child needed him to arrive on Tuesday exactly when he said he would.

The household meeting took place without Teddy.

Rose attended.

So did Mrs. Bell, the chef, the driver, and Sebastian’s assistant.

He began with himself.

“A concern about Teddy was delayed because I assumed someone else had enough information to decide it could wait.”

His assistant looked stricken.

“I should have connected the call.”

“I gave you the instruction that made you think not to.”

They changed the arrangement.

A concern about food, fear, health, or a punishment that prevented Teddy from contacting a parent would reach Sebastian directly.

If he could not answer, Mara was the next call.

Nobody needed Lavinia’s permission.

Nobody needed to decide whether a powerful adult would find the interruption inconvenient.