“I asked Michelle about it in the car and she laughed and said what a small world, and I let it go.” A long pause.

“Victoria, I have let a great many things go in my life, and I am at an age where I have started adding them up.”

Then she asked me the question she had actually called to ask.

“Did you know Christopher was paying for something in Tucson?”

And this is the moment where the whole thing turned, and I want to describe exactly what I did, because it is the only decision in this story I am genuinely proud of.

I said: “Evelyn, I’m going to answer that carefully.