The changed lock was not a punishment; it was a fact, the same way a seatbelt is a fact.

Gene had shown, over three years and two consecutive mornings, exactly who she was willing to be to a small child, and Brandon had done the only responsible thing a father can do with that information, which is to believe it, and act on it, and stop offering his daughter up to it holiday after holiday in the hope that this time would be different.

People will tell you that family means you always leave the door open, that blood forgives everything, that you owe your mother access to your children no matter what.

I used to half-believe that.