He didn’t know about you.

Somebody in his family didn’t tell him, and that was a very bad thing that a grown-up did, and it wasn’t his fault and it definitely wasn’t yours.

When he found out, he came the same week.”

Which is true, and which is a version of the truth carefully assembled for a seven-year-old, and which contains a decision Jessi made without consulting me and which I would not have had the courage to make.

She protected me.