It is a closed loop, and its cruelty is total, because the more upset the harm makes her — the more she reacts as any hurt person reacts — the more she confirms the very story being used to bury her. She’s dramatic.

She’s emotional.

She’s unstable. They had been building that story about Amara for months, I realized, laying the groundwork with everyone who mattered, so that when the day came that she finally spoke, the ground would already be prepared to swallow her words.

They had not just planned to hurt my daughter.

They had planned, in advance, to make sure no one would believe her when she said so.

It was the same weapon Rourke’s intelligence had helped them aim — her medical history, her vulnerabilities, everything they needed to make the “unstable” story stick.