“But you always say I shouldn’t keep secrets from you, Mommy,” she said.

“You always say that.

So I wanted to tell you.”

I knelt down in front of her on the warm sand so that we were eye to eye, and I made my voice as gentle and ordinary as I could.

“That’s right, sweetheart,” I said.

“You can always, always tell me anything.

That’s the rule, and it’s a good rule, and you were right to follow it.

Can you tell me what happened in the hotel room?”