“Well, you certainly get an A-plus for following my directions well.”

He didn’t like that.

“I would have recognized him without the broken nose.”

Rainy frowned. “Maybe so, but I wanted you to recognize me.”

Rainy touched her tongue to her front teeth and shook her head from side to side. Maybe his thinking was getting slow, or maybe he was studying her, but there was something odd about the look on his face.

“You are the same, Summer. The same fire, the same defiance. You haven’t changed at all. That’s what I admired about you. I could always count on your defiance. My sweet Summertime.”

“You never met a trauma you didn’t like to poke.” She shook her head in disgust.

“Haven’t you heard that the light gets in through the cracks?” He said this like there was a joke hiding behind his words, because they both knew he orchestrated those cracks just so he could provide the religious salve for them. It created a cycle of psychological dependency in his followers.

“I know about the photos you took of my mother, of the other mothers...of their fucking daughters! That was your thing, right? You held their children captive by draining their bank accounts so they couldn’t leave, and then you took dirty photos of them. You blackmailed them. You are on trial tonight, Taured.”

Rainy enjoyed the look on his face. It was the face of a man who didn’t believe anything bad could happen to him, that every threat was made by a lesser person and held no ground. She enjoyed it because she intended to wipe the smug expression from his face once and for all.

“A trial without evidence? A childish notion. I promise you, Rainy—” he tried the name out like he was humoring her “—there is none. All of your claims have always been false.”

“This isn’t a court of law, Taured. This is two people chatting in a kitchen...ah...excuse me...” She turned the steaks with the spork, then licked her lips, wanting her words to hit in the right way. “This is my court.”

“Your court? Do you mean to judge me?”

“I do.” Could he tell that something was wrong? His movement was nonexistent at this point; he was still, only his eyes and mouth moving.

He laughed, just a little laugh—like a chuckle. The past came back to her in a hurry: the heat of the day, the way the bat had felt in her hands on the softball field, slippery and heavy...the fear. Oh God, the fear was so big and she had been so small.