And then the second sentence: he’s entitled to ask a question.

Which is unanswerable, and is meant to be.

Of course a man is entitled to ask a question.

Nobody in that room had ever said otherwise.

It is a true statement deployed to do the work of a false one — because the thing she had actually done was not help him ask a question, it was give him a manufactured answer and send him across town to find a witness for it.

“There was never any affair,” Brian said, from the doorway, perfectly level.