My sister had walked far, far past it, of her own accord.

The court merely made it official.

People who hear this story sometimes ask me whether I have forgiven her, and it is a harder question than it sounds, and I have learned to answer it carefully.

I have not forgiven her, if forgiveness means restoring her to the place she held in my life before, if it means pretending the thing she did can be set down and walked away from as though it never happened.

That I cannot do, and I have stopped believing I am obligated to.