I have tried to teach it to my own daughter, now that she is old enough to begin to understand: when everyone around you is certain of a comfortable story, and someone is being blamed, ask the quiet question underneath.

Ask who benefits from the story everyone finds it so easy to believe.

It is astonishing how often the answer is the very person telling it.

Chapter 4 — A Comfortable Suspicion

My mother paced the kitchen, wringing her hands, and what she was afraid of was not the crime.

It was the talk.

“The neighbors,” she muttered.

“They’ll say you dragged her back here after she jilted you.