Alejandro and Claudia could have the coats and the watches and the war zone they had made of my living room; those were only things, and things can be replaced or done without.

What they could not be allowed to touch was the one place that still held the truth of me.

A person who has forgotten her own worth will fight for it most fiercely, it turns out, on the one ground where it was never in doubt.

Chapter 11 — The War Zone

That afternoon, Alejandro called me on video.

I almost did not answer.