End of Part One.

Part Two

For five years my family told a story about a little girl who forgot a phone. We told it kindly. We told it so often that it became furniture. Then my daughter turned eighteen and told me what she had actually done, and I found out that the thing I had been forgiving her for was not the thing.

Chapter 10 — The Letter

The notice came in the mail on a Tuesday in March, in an envelope from the state department of corrections, addressed to me as a registered victim.

**NOTIFICATION OF PAROLE ELIGIBILITY HEARING.** Reeves, Michael A. A date in June. A place. A form to complete if any registered victim wished to submit a written statement or appear in person.

Five years since Ethan came out of that interview room in Oregon and hit my arms hard enough to nearly put me down.

We were all in the house that week, which almost never happens now. Noah was between jobs and staying in the basement room. Ethan had driven up from the coast for Sophie’s eighteenth.