That is what saved us, more than the recordings, more than the trust, more than anything: that neither of us ever had to face the machine of his lies alone, because the other was always there, holding the truth the abuser was trying to erase.

A single girl in that house might have come to believe him.

Two girls, holding each other’s reality intact, never fully could.

Our twinship was the one lock he could not pick.

Chapter 10 — Status Cannot Save You Here

Roland’s defense attorney arrived twenty minutes later, in a tailored suit, with loud legal threats.

Neither the suit nor the threats slowed anything down, because the protocol Dr.

Sato had triggered did not answer to status.