We tend to imagine that the loyal are safe, that goodness is its own protection, that the people who stand faithfully by us will be all right because they are on the right side.

It is not true.

The loyal are often the most exposed, precisely because their loyalty makes them see clearly, and seeing clearly makes them inconvenient to anyone with something to hide.

Teresa’s steadiness, her closeness to my family, her thirteen years of earned trust, all the things that made her valuable, were the very things that made her a target.

I have resolved never again to assume that the good people around me are safe simply because they are good.