But because it was involuntary and instinctive, and instinct does not lie.

In a genuine crisis, a person’s protective reflex fires toward whatever they hold most precious, without consulting them; you cannot fake the direction it points.

And Barrett’s, in the single worst moment of his marriage, with his wife standing wounded in front of him, had fired toward the other woman.

He had not thought about it.

He had simply moved, in body and in words, to shield her.

Every insult of the preceding two years had been an argument he was making; this was a reflex he could not help.