Where today’s biggest event was set to unfold, Lily was eight. She hadn’t said a single word to another soul since last November, the day two officers in uniform showed up at the farmhouse and her world cracked wide open.

Her mother, Officer Hannah Parker, was gone. Kiled in the line of duty, the paper said, gone in a way that left no room for questions or hope. After that, Lily’s voice had retreated, hidden somewhere even she couldn’t reach.

But this morning, Lily had woken up before dawn, the familiar ache in her chest just a little sharper than usual. She went straight to the dusty mason jar she’d been filling with coins for as long as she could remember. Birthday dimes, lemonade stand quarters, the silver dollars her mom used to slip her as