Abusers do not seek out the foolish.

They seek out the kind, precisely because kindness extends the benefit of the doubt, and the benefit of the doubt is the exact crack they climb through.

It could happen to almost anyone good.

That is the part people do not want to hear, and it is the truest part of all.

Chapter 25 — What the Investigation Found

Victoria called us around ten o’clock that night with the first news.

A judge had granted emergency protective orders, and the prosecutor was already preparing formal charges, for the harassment and for the financial fraud.