Not out of revenge.

Out of the oldest obligation there is: a mother protecting her child.

I want to be precise about that distinction, because it governed every decision I made in the months that followed, and because it is the thing that kept me sane and steady when a lesser motive would have made me reckless.

I was not doing any of this to punish George.

If punishment had been my aim, I would have wanted to see him suffer, would have measured my success by his pain, would have been tempted, at every turn, toward the dramatic gesture, the public humiliation, the satisfying scene.