I felt only a quiet, enormous relief that my children might get to have a father, on their own terms, entirely separate from the wreckage of what he had done to me.

Chapter 16 — Thanks, Dad

Delphine took far longer to earn anything at all.

She asked to see me many times, and for months I refused.

When I finally agreed, it was at a quiet cafe, and she arrived without the jewelry and the driver and the imperious manner, and set the blue box on the table between us.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me, Camille,” she said.

“Good,” I said.