For years, seven-year-old Oliver had begged his parents for a sibling. When baby Lucy finally arrived, he adored her immediately. He sang when she cried, helped choose her clothes, and proudly showed her picture to everyone. So when his mother discovered him curled beneath Lucy’s crib with his pillow, blanket, and stuffed dinosaur, she assumed he simply wanted to stay close to the sister he had waited so long to meet.

But Oliver returned beneath the crib night after night. Soon he was exhausted at breakfast and struggling at school. His parents wondered whether jealousy was responsible, while his grandmother Patricia insisted he was simply seeking attention. Then, shortly after 2 a.m., his mother heard Oliver whisper through the baby monitor. His first words were strange enough: “I won’t fall asleep this time.” But what he whispered next sent her rushing toward the nursery: “I won’t let Grandma do it again.”