Once Piper left to wash her hands, Whitney looked at me.

“I’ve been going over everything Mom said for years,” she whispered.

“How she always told me I was too tired to handle Piper, how she claimed you weren’t interested in helping.

I thought she was protecting me.”

“What do you think now?”

“I think I was afraid to find out.”

I didn’t want to punish Whitney for admitting it.

I also couldn’t comfort her by pretending it was harmless.