“Is everything all right with Theo?” she asked, settling her expensive purse on the chair beside her.

“Theo asked me a question yesterday,” I said, and I kept my voice entirely flat, drained of everything, because I wanted her to have nothing to react against but the facts.

“He asked me whether grown-ups are allowed to keep ugly secrets.

And then he told me he saw Solomon kissing Jennifer, in my bed.”

Charlotte’s posture stiffened, and she reached, at once, for the oldest weapon there is against a child’s testimony.

“He’s five years old, Natalie,” she said.