What I saw cross his face was pure calculation, the same calculation he brought to a spreadsheet: the rapid assessment of exposure, of damage, of what this would cost him.

His son had just laid his whole heart bare in the most frightened and courageous act of his young life, and Julian looked at that act and saw only a liability to be contained.

That was when I knew there was truly nothing left to mourn.

The man I had married, if he had ever really existed, was long gone, and this was what remained.

Chapter 20 — Control Your Son