She was struck by the compassion in his voice, which she had not heard for a long, long time. She put down her pen, closed her book, and swiveled to face him. “I don’t know, Tateh. I really don’t.”

“I went to see Grub today.”

She was shocked, steeling herself, just about imagining the show that pervert had put on. “And?”

“And now I know that everything you told Leah is true.”

Shaindele stood up and walked to him, throwing her arms around him.

He hugged her, smoothing down her hair. “My lovely girl, my Shaindele,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head.

She wiped the tears from her eyes. “What’s going to happen now, Tateh? Are they going to throw me out of school?”

“Of course not! Why would they? It’s Grub who has to be worried, not you. What was your aveira? That you told the emes? That you stood up to that chazzar, that bulvan? I’m very proud of you. Not all young girls would,” he murmured.

“I was so afraid you wouldn’t believe me! I wouldn’t blame you.”

“I never want you to be afraid to talk to me again. You can tell me anything. Anything. Please promise.”

“Bli neder.”

Leah stood outside the door watching. She, too, was close to tears. All the memories and longings of her journey toward a deeper life, a richer happiness, built on the firm foundations of love for a husband and children in a place where good was sought, and evil and corruption exposed and destroyed came flooding back to her. At this moment, in this humble little apartment in Boro Park, she saw it, a place where God’s light flooded in unimpeded, warming her soul.

“Leah!” Shaindele called out to her. “Thank you!” Slowly, they came together, hugging long and hard, finally bridging all the emotional and cultural gaps that had so long plagued their relationship.

“Come, let’s eat. I’m starving,” Yaakov said, smiling as he looked at them, treasuring the moment even as he struggled against the fear that still lingered in his heart, a fear that this was not yet over. But he was not too worried. Despite Grub’s ugly threats, as a man nourished by decades of learning the laws of goodness in the Torah, he simply assumed that he lived in a place that had internalized those laws as he had and that he would surely be believed.

As soon as he explained the situation to the school, he told himself, they would apologize and thank him, making sure they never sent Grub another young girl. Not only that, but they would help him to inform the parents of Grub’s other young patients of the dangers and the need to switch their daughters to another counselor, as he intended to do immediately with Shaindele.