“It never feels harmless to the person left standing alone in the room.” It was not a door closed.

But it was not a door thrown open, either.

It was honest, and after eight years of a house built on lies, honesty was the most she was willing to spend.

Isadora thought about Everard more than she expected to, in the months that followed.

Of all of them, he was the one whose failure had been the quietest and, in a way, the most instructive.

He had never insulted her.