“You were standing next to him, Rachel,” I said.

“In the photograph.

At the control panel.

You were holding the papers.”

“Victor made me believe I was protecting you,” she said, and then her legs seemed to give out, and she sank into the chair by my bed and began to weep.

“Clara, I swear to you on Mom’s life, I thought I was protecting you.

Let me tell you everything, from the beginning, and then you can hate me all you want.

But you have to know what he actually did, because it’s worse than you think, and it’s also the only reason you’re alive.”