I want that understood, because it would be a tidier story if I had — the far-seeing wife quietly arming herself against the betrayal she knew was coming.

The truth is less dramatic and, I think, more useful.

I built a sound structure because building sound structures was my profession and my nature, and a sound structure, by its nature, has a center, and someone competent has to hold it.

I made myself that someone for the same reason a careful architect puts the load-bearing wall where the load actually is: not out of suspicion, but out of correctness.

The protection was a byproduct of the competence.