And that, I think, is why my son believed he could take me.

He had grown up hearing that his mother did something with numbers, and had never once bothered to learn what.

He knew the word “bookkeeper.” He did not know the word “testimony.” He had never imagined that the frail widow in the navy coat had built her entire life out of the ruins of men exactly like the one he had decided to become.

Chapter 7 — Choose Your Words

I sat down carefully.

Judge Merrion looked at the petition again, now with a great deal more interest.