What I told her, in the end, was that it did not much matter whether Gavin had felt some flicker of real fondness underneath the calculation, because even if he had, he had been willing to destroy her for money anyway, and a love that is willing to do that is not a love worth grieving.

Victoria, wisely, never let us waste much time trying to map the inside of his motives, and in the end it did not matter what he had or had not felt.

Loving someone does not grant you the right to control their life.

Needing money does not grant you the right to dismantle someone’s freedom.

His reasons, whatever tangle they were, changed none of that.

I found, as the months went on, that I did not spend much energy hating Gavin, and I think that surprised people who knew the story.