The phrase destroying the family is held in reserve, kept sharp, and brought out for exactly one occasion: the moment the wronged woman refuses to keep it quiet.

The instant she picks up a phone, hires a lawyer, tells the truth out loud — that is when she is accused of destroying everything.

As though the family were a fragile thing made entirely of her silence, and would stand forever so long as she kept absorbing the blows, and shattered only when she finally stepped out of the way and let the blows land where they’d been thrown.

Joe had spent three years and a secret double life doing the actual destroying.