And when you lose that bet, as I lost it, the person who pays is the child you were supposed to protect.

Chapter 2 — Half a Dinner Roll

I did not warn anyone I was coming.

I wanted to catch Maya in the act of whatever my mother had described, to arrive unannounced and see the truth for myself.

I arrived at her high school around lunchtime and scanned the courtyard for my daughter among the students, and it took me several minutes to recognize her, which should have been my first warning.

Maya was sitting alone on a concrete planter, wearing a faded school shirt and a pair of sneakers so worn that the soles were beginning to detach from the uppers.