Because here is the thing I had decided, early and absolutely, and held to through the entire divorce: I had no intention, none, of severing the bond between my son and his father.

Whatever Solomon had done to me, he was still Theo’s dad, and Theo loved him, and a child’s love for his father is a sacred thing that I would not damage to punish a man who deserved punishing.

What I was fiercely, immovably determined to prevent was something narrower and more specific.

Theo would never again be used — never again be made an alibi, or a messenger, or a hostage, or a keeper of secrets.

He could love his father freely.