She was thirty-nine, a high school English teacher, and she had been divorced for two years and in family court for most of them.

I want to write down what she said to me the first time we met, in a corridor at the county attorney’s office, because it is not what people expect and because I have thought about it for years.

She did not thank me first.

The first thing she said, having been introduced, having shaken my hand, was: “Did she seem frightened of me?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Charlotte.