That is what a lifetime of suspecting the wrong people does.

It leaves the right ones free to do as they please.

Chapter 4 — You’re a Daughter Now

The next morning my father sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast as though the night had held nothing at all.

He was expansive, warm, joking with Mariana, piling extra food onto her plate, and at one point he put his arm around her shoulders and said, “You’re a daughter now, Mariana.

Not a guest.” I could barely make myself look at him, and I did not yet fully know why.