“She helped make it happen.”

“Then she needs to understand the harm before she meets our daughter.

Willa isn’t a chance for anybody to clear their conscience.”

I had never heard Elena use the phrase “our daughter” while speaking to me.

It filled me with gratitude and shame at once.

I told her I agreed.

That weekend Willa sent me a voice message explaining that a caterpillar would turn into a butterfly, unless it was a moth, in which case we should still be polite.

I listened to it three times.