That is a specific and terrible kind of violation, the kind that makes you question your own capacity to trust at all.

I have had to work, since, not to let it harden me against everyone.

But I do not regret having trusted her then.

The failure was not in my trust.

The failure was in the person who received it and chose to weaponize it.

Trust freely given is not a weakness.

The weakness belongs entirely to the one who betrays it.

Chapter 11 — A Gambling Problem