The thing that eventually killed it was not me.

It was Paige, over about eighteen months, in individual conversations, one relative at a time, saying: I was in the room.

That is not what happened.

The text arrived that evening from a number I did not have.

Hannah — this is Valerie Amaro.

I’m not asking you for anything and I’m not trying to take anything from you.

But you’ve been lied to about something that happened eleven years ago and I’m the only other person who knows what it actually was.

There’s also something about the last three months you should know.