For Eight Months I Thought I’d Found Love After My Divorce — Then a Woman I’d Never Met Recognized His Photo and Said “When I Knew Him, He Went by a Different Name,” and I Understood Every Breakfast Had Been Reconnaissance

Abigail changed, after.

For weeks she checked her closet every night before she could sleep.

She asked, more than once, whether Gregory had a secret key.

She asked whether a stranger could really take her just by saying her mother was in the hospital.

Christopher and I gave her the same answer every time, until it was worn smooth as a stone.

“No one is ever allowed to take you without our word.

And if anything ever scares you, you say so right away — even if a grown-up gets upset, even if you think you might be making a big deal out of nothing.” One night she looked up at me and asked the question that went through me like a wire.