Seven words, and they took from me, permanently, the comforting possibility that I had made it up.

He had not said it in anger, and that was the part that closed the matter, because anger would have meant it was a feeling, and feelings pass, and he had said it instead as a fact, the way you report a policy that has been in effect so long no one remembers approving it.

Chapter 6 — Your Crown Belongs on Your Head

Mom, Lily said, when I came back in.