He had given ground, endlessly, but he had kept one thing back, one hidden key, one preserved truth, and in keeping it he had kept himself.

And that reserved core of unsurrendered self was, in the end, what saved them all, because it meant that when his son finally came, there was still a father there to help, and evidence still hidden to fight with, and a truth still protected to bring into the light.

The most defeated-looking man in Savannah had kept, in a rusted key under a stone, the seed of his own rescue.

Chapter 8 — The Performance