On that rainy Tuesday, under the overpass, the first crack ran up the wall.

I have thought since about why that particular lie went into me so cleanly, without resistance, and I have stopped letting myself pretend it was only cunning on their part.

A skilled lie is not one you are tricked into against your will.

A skilled lie is one that arrives already fitted to a shape that is waiting inside you.

Maya did not have to force anything past my defenses, because I had no defenses against exactly this story — the story in which my wife was disloyal and my money was the reason.