She was right the whole time.

I just took a while to catch up to her.

Chapter 20 — Survival Without Shame

Evelyn came to the opening, and stood at a respectful distance, which was where she had learned, over the year, that she belonged.

She had testified, when the time came, truthfully and completely, surrendering at last every secret she had spent so long protecting.

She had spent the year since doing the slow, unglamorous work of earning something back — not my forgiveness, exactly, which is not a thing that can be earned so much as decided, but a small place at the edge of the new life I had built.