Their contempt was a blind spot precisely the size and shape of me, and I stepped into it, and I did my work there, unseen, for weeks.

The thing that had made me a victim for thirty-one years was the exact thing that let me take them all apart.

I have never decided whether that is tragic or just, and I have stopped trying to.

It is only what happened.

Chapter 6 — The Condo

Four days later there was a family lunch at my parents’ house, and midway through it, Beatrice and Arthur drew me aside into the dining room, and Vance stepped in behind them and closed the door, and I understood that this had been arranged.