I want to be precise about that, because it is the center of everything.

I did not hire an auditor.

I did not ask Lucy one genuine question.

I did not so much as look at a bank record with my own eyes.

I took the story that flattered my pride and wounded my heart in exactly the proportions I found most believable, and I swallowed it whole, and I called my refusal to look any deeper by the name of strength.

For three years I lived inside that story as though it were a house.