“I was trying to spare Renata a burden she is too young to carry.”

“That is not the same as answering me.”

“No,” she said.

“It is not.”

I waited.

She said nothing more.

At the front door, she put a hand on my shoulder and asked me to leave the envelope sealed until we had spoken again.

I told her I would decide what to do after I had read it, and she stepped aside.