“Maybe it started like he said. Maybe it was her idea. I can’t tell what she’s feeling in the other shots. But that one, when she sees the camera, it’s so clear. She wanted it to stop. They didn’t stop. Or maybe she didn’t want any of it, ever. I don’t know. I only know what I see.” Her voice was a raw, ugly whisper. He had yet to speak, but she stepped toward him as if he’d argued with her. “He’s not a predator. He never did anything like this again in his whole life. I’d swear to it. I think on some level he must be so ashamed. He must be sorry. Because he distanced himself from Spence and got back with Maura. He lied to me, or he kept silent, but maybe anybody would. He did an awful thing. Years ago. But he is not an awful man.”

“He’s not an awful man,” Marshall echoed, relieved to have something he could say, a way to agree with her.

She nodded, vehement. “He’s a good man. A good father. So good to me.” Her eyes on his were pleading. “He did an awful thing.”

“Yeah. He did,” Marshall said. “So what’s the fix? You love him. You have three kids together. You’re not going to head right to a divorce lawyer’s office. What do you want to happen next? How does this get mended?” He sounded pragmatic and cool. Inside he was shaking. He hated Trey for putting her in this position. He felt as if he was playing devil’s advocate. Literally. “You can’t blame him for what Coral did. Hell, if he and Adam Wilkerson were mass murderers, it doesn’t justify her stealing children. You can only blame him for this one moment, right here.” He turned the picture toward her, and she flinched. “He did this. It happened, but so did the next thirty years. So did all the years of your marriage. All the good he’s done in his community and for you, his kids. So what now?”

Her face had cleared as he spoke. “When you put it that way, it gets so simple.”

That shocked him. “It does?”