Every time I picked her up and gently encouraged her to walk, she’d say, “No thank you,” in the sweetest, saddest little voice—like she knew something I didn’t. I thought maybe she just wanted to be held. Maybe she was scared.

The pediatrician couldn’t find anything wrong. “Probably just favoring it,” they said. “Give it a day.”

But the next morning, her leg was stiff. And she cried when I took off her sock