My 8-year-old son suddenly began sleeping on the floor outside Grandma’s bedroom every night. I didn’t understand why until 4 a.m., when I heard him whisper through the darkness, “I won’t let Uncle do that to Grandma again.

Whenever Jason went upstairs, Tyler followed. If Jason sat beside Mom’s bed, Tyler suddenly appeared with a drawing or a question, and whenever Jason offered to stay with her while I ran errands, Tyler no longer wanted to come with me.

At first, I thought he was simply becoming possessive of Grandma. One Saturday, Jason carried a cup of tea upstairs, and Tyler immediately stood to follow him.

Jason laughed.

“What’s with you, little bodyguard?”

He ruffled Tyler’s hair, but Tyler did not smile.

That should have bothered me more than it did.

Instead, I pulled Tyler aside later and told him to stop hovering around his uncle. I explained that Jason was only trying to help and that Grandma could call me if she needed anything.

Tyler stared at the carpet before finally looking up at me.

“Okay, Mom.”

That night, he slept outside Grandma’s door again. I carried him back to his bed around midnight, but at two in the morning, he was already back in the hallway.

I began wondering whether his anxiety had become serious enough to need professional help.

Then, a few nights later, I woke shortly after four in the morning because I thought I heard someone whispering. When I opened my bedroom door, Tyler was lying outside Mom’s room beneath his dinosaur blanket, but this time he was wide awake and staring directly at the door handle.