My daughter, who had been made to sleep in that place, chose to turn it into a refuge for other frightened children.

She named it, herself, The Second House.

Veronica’s legal proceedings took fourteen months.

She reached a civil settlement to repay the stolen military pay, forfeited all remaining claims to family assets, performed community service, and continued court-ordered therapy, and in time she moved into a small downtown apartment and took an entry-level bookkeeping job.

I never once forced Hannah to forgive her, and I never would.

What Veronica did, she did without my prompting: she wrote letters to Hannah, sent only through Hannah’s therapist, and she did not ask for pity in them, and she did not ask for a relationship.