POV: Kesley

I looked at Leo.

His face was the controlled one. The version that meant he was somewhere deep inside the management of something very large and very old, holding it with both hands.

I turned back to Nora.

"You're going to be safe," I said. "After this. You and the baby. I'll make sure of it."

She looked at me with the particular expression of someone who has stopped expecting kindness and doesn't know what to do when it arrives.

"Why?" she said.

"Because he used you the same way he used me," I said. "Because your child didn't choose any of this. And because I am not...