They are persuaded by consistency and by plainness, by the same true thing said the same true way over and over until it becomes part of the floor they stand on.

Beatrice had wealth and status and years of proximity, and she used all of it to try to teach Chloe that she did not fully belong.

Caleb had none of Beatrice’s tools.

What he had was the willingness to say one true sentence, you are my daughter, plainly, without qualification, as often as it took, and to back it with three years of packed lunches and steamed dresses and rabbits turned to face the door.

And that, it turned out, was stronger.