It was the discipline that keeps justice from decaying into revenge, the line that separates the woman who was wronged from the woman who becomes, in her turn, a wrongdoer.

I built Preston’s downfall to answer to his actions, not to my pain — every consequence tied to a specific crime, every crime documented, nothing added for the pleasure of it.

That is what made it justice and not vengeance, and that is why I could sign my name to it with clean hands and sleep soundly afterward.

Revenge would have felt better in the moment.

Justice felt better for the rest of my life.