Leah was clearly completely destabilized, and I have truly failed at picking up the signs of how disturbed she really was, but how much damage has she managed to do? Leah speaks of missing pieces of puzzles, of unlocking the doors to the past, as if my life was some fucking story to be reconstructed for her twisted entertainment. I hate her smug, misinformed voice and find it impossible to reconcile with the Leah Iverson I thought I knew. The reality of what she has done is shocking: she sought out my mother, who, like Leah said, likes the sound of her own voice, and possibly poor Elisabeth too. It explains a lot. Everything, in fact.

I don’t know why Leah became obsessed with what happened to us in Carúpano, but I think she’s right about the preoccupation with someone else’s tragic experience being a way for the mind to escape its own reality. I see it sometimes in clients who become unusually preoccupied with events that ultimately have nothing to do with them, such as a plane crash or a terrorist attack.

What happened to us in Venezuela was a terrible tragedy, one that has defined my life in many ways, but still, I have built a life beyond it. I committed to my own healing and I was able to move on past trauma by accepting its presence and integrating it into my experience. It’s true that I was more fortunate than Elisabeth in the way my mind and body processed the attack – I haven’t been forced to endlessly relive what happened or been haunted day and night by what that man did to us.

Why is Leah hell-bent on dragging this back out into the light? I feel sick at the thought of her seeking out Elisabeth; she was a very vulnerable woman, and especially in the last months of her life. She would have been easily won over by someone as devious and convincing as Leah. She might have told her things that were untrue, or irrelevant, or dangerous, or all of those.