My hands were completely steady, which frightened me more than anything else that week.

“And she’s texting you at nine o’clock at night to make sure you both hold the line on a story you agreed on.”

“We were scared—”

“You rehearsed it.” I looked up at him.

“That’s what that is.

That’s a girl checking that her partner is going to hold to a script.

The two of you sat down, at some point in the last twenty-four hours, and you decided together what everybody in this family was going to be allowed to believe.

And then you sat on my sofa this morning and let her do it on her knees.”