Dr.

Alvear’s assessment — which she gave in writing, and which Margaret has read perhaps thirty times — was this.

A seven-year-old who has been asked to keep a secret by a parent who has now died is in an impossible position.

She cannot break the promise.

She also cannot carry it.

And she does not have the language to say I saw a mark on my mother’s neck and I think it matters, because that sentence requires an adult’s understanding of cause and consequence.