“She deserves to have someone take real care of her for the rest of her life.” He sent lavish flowers to her door every single week.

He took her to fine restaurants.

He went with her to church on Sunday mornings and sat beside her in the pew, bowing his head at the right moments, shaking the right hands afterward.

Everyone loved him.

I need to say that plainly, because it is part of how these things work and part of why they are so hard to stop.

Gavin was not a man anyone would have warned my mother about.