Helen had written that she hoped I had friends who knew how to tell the truth kindly, and adults who admitted when they were wrong.

I stared at that sentence for a long time, thinking about Walter.

He had been the person I trusted most.

He had taught me to balance accounts and to speak honestly even when honesty was inconvenient.

Yet he had also made the terrible decision to tell a little girl her mother was dead.

I opened my own notebook and wrote two statements side by side.

Walter loved me.