Loving Your Child Is an Instinct; Shielding Him From the Consequences of What He Did to Another Human Being Is Something Else Entirely — I Learned the Difference at Sixty, at the Door of a Chicken Coop

“For the prosecutor to secure a conviction, Natasha will have to testify.

In open court.

With Brock in the room.” I watched the color leave her face, watched her breath catch, and she whispered that she could not bear to look at his face again.

I took both her cold hands in mine.

“You don’t have to prove anything to that man,” I told her.

“You only have to tell the judge the truth.” She was quiet a long time, holding something heavy and turning it over.

And then she raised her head, and there was something new in her eyes, small and steady and hers.