It was precisely the instinct a predator would count on.

A cloistered convent’s habit of silence, its horror of scandal, its preference for managing embarrassment privately rather than airing it — these were not neutral.

They were a set of unlocked doors, and someone had walked through every one of them.

From that morning forward, Inmaculada resolved, she would treat the safety of the women in her care as the only reputation that mattered.

Let the town gossip.