It is one of the loneliest things I can imagine.

Most parents are spared it; most get to die believing the best of their children, or at least to die before the worst is proven.

Mr.

Christopher did not get that mercy, because he was too honest a man to give it to himself.

He looked at Justin, and he loved him, and he saw him, both at once, and he must have carried the ache of that double vision quietly, for years, never letting it curdle into cruelty or coldness, still leaving his son a fair share of everything — but no longer trusting him with the one thing that mattered, which was the safety of the people who could not protect themselves from him.

To love someone and not trust them is a very particular grief, and Mr.