“Do you still see Kelly?” I asked her suddenly. Frankie looked at Sean as if for help, didn’t dare look at me to see if it was a casual question or a challenge.

“I haven’t seen her in a long while,” Frankie said. “I text now and then.”

She’s asked me back, I wanted to say. If I say yes, we’re going to pretend nothing ever happened. Would Frankie be a part of that, too? Would assuming my old life mean I could have some of my friends back? That they’d have me back? The accusation had deleted me from the lives of my colleagues, too. From Kelly’s life. I’d not only lost her but she’d lost me, and now she was finally feeling that loss. If I decided to go back, I’d be leaving Amanda. Val. The house on the water. The geese. It was a silly thing to contemplate, but suddenly the tree on Redemption Point flashed into my mind. The vines would come up and strangle it to death in my absence.

The silence was ringing. Sean and Frankie took out identical stapled sheaves of paper, Sean sliding his across to me.

“I thought we’d respond directly to the issues raised,” Sean said.

“Oh, this is it?” I said. I took the pages with shaky hands. “This is the transcript of Melanie’s interview with Stories and Lives?”

“There it is, in full.” Sean sighed, revulsion clipping his words again. I read the pages while they watched me, my eyes dancing over the cold, printed lines as shockwaves of dread came again and again. I had to read some lines several times over. It was hard to focus.

LARA: When did you first think something was wrong?

MELANIE: Ted started asking whether Elise had a boyfriend. I said of course she doesn’t, she’s eight. Like, I felt weird myself, you know? Ted was my first boyfriend. But he was very advanced. It struck me at the time that he’d probably had other girlfriends before. He was always wanting to touch, to kiss. He wanted to play Truth or Dare, and that’s kind of how he led me into sexual things. And he wanted to involve Elise.

“This isn’t true.” I was trembling all over. I wiped my sweating brow. “None of this is true.”

“Let’s take it a step at a time,” Sean said. Frankie started the tape and did the introductions. Sean put a hand on my shoulder. It was all I could do not to shrug it off. “Tell us about your relationship with Melanie.”

“It was nothing like this.” I gestured to the papers. “Nothing at all like this. I was not advanced and there was no sexual kissing or touching. Melanie was my first girlfriend, and I was very nervous. I just about broke it off because I couldn’t bring myself to kiss her. I was embarrassed—we were close with another teen couple and they kissed all the time, in front of us, like they were showing off.”