There is a real question, and I have sat with it many times since, about whether what he did was right, whether a father is ever justified in casting out his child, even to protect her, even out of love, without ever telling her why.

I do not think there is an easy answer.

What he did protected me, very possibly saved my life and Grace’s, and it also caused ten years of unnecessary pain, because he never trusted me with the truth, never gave me the chance to make my own choice about my own danger.

Both of those things are true at once, and I have stopped trying to resolve them into a single verdict.

He was a frightened man who did a terrible thing for a loving reason, and the terrible thing and the loving reason do not cancel each other out.