They spoke for ten minutes and ended the call without making any promises about what their relationship would become.

PART 25

A year after the accusation, Clara began helping run a weekly after-school program at the public library.

Children arrived with backpacks larger than their shoulders.

Some needed homework help; others simply needed a quiet place while their parents finished work.

Clara brought a battered wooden box filled with colored pencils and a stack of handmade story cards.

She made the children put their names on the cards so they could take their creations home.

The first week a little boy named Theo refused to draw.