At the door he paused.

“Did you really believe I knew?”

“For five years,” I said.

He shut his eyes.

“And you still raised them without turning them against me.”

“They don’t know you well enough to turn against you,” I said.

“What they need now is honesty, consistency, and adults who stop making them pay for old mistakes.”

PART 7: The Envelope in the Locked Drawer