I did not want that for Hannah.

I wanted her to grow up understanding that she is allowed to close a door and keep it closed, that forgiveness, if she ever chooses to grant it, is a thing that happens inside her own heart and does not obligate her to hand anyone a key to her life.

A person can be forgiven and still not be safe.

She was learning, at nine, to tell the difference, and it is one of the few pieces of this whole story that I can look at with unmixed gladness.