“In the beginning, I mailed a few,” she said.

“You didn’t answer.” “I never received a single one.” Gabriel examined the envelopes; the oldest bore stamps and postmarks, and had been returned for an incomplete APO address — an address Veronica had miscopied, I would learn, deliberately, the very first time.

After those came back, she had simply stopped, and thrown the rest in the tin.

“When my business started failing,” she said quietly, “I used your checks.

I told myself I’d pay it back.” “And that’s why you took it out on a child?”