He had used our daughter’s presence to keep everything looking warm and innocent.

He had even made Lily an unknowing accomplice, dressing his crime up as a birthday surprise for me.

Something settled in me then.

Not rage, though rage was in it somewhere.

It was closer to the clean, focused calm I felt at the end of a long audit, when the last figure finally reconciles and you know, beyond argument, what the truth is and what you are going to do about it.

The audit was finished.