‘‘That’s another thing that’s going around.’’ He subsided only because it seemed easier to get it all over with at once. ‘‘Go ahead then, say what you have to say.’’

‘‘You think I don’t understand. You think I can’t relate to what’s eating you up inside. You’re wrong. I was raped when I was ten years old.’’

Shock jolted his heart, pain squeezed his soul. ‘‘Jesus, Anna! Jesus, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’’

‘‘Now you do. Does it change me, Ethan? Aren’t I the same person I was thirty seconds ago?’’ She reached for his hand again, held it this time. ‘‘I know what it is to be helpless and terrified and want to die. And I know what it is to make something of your life, despite that. And I know what it is to have that horror in you always. No matter how much you’ve learned, no matter how much you’ve come to accept it and know it was never, ever your fault.’’

‘‘It’s not the same.’’

‘‘It’s never the same, not for any two people. We have something more in common as well. I never knew who my father was. Was he a good man or a bad one? Tall or short? Did he love my mother, or did he use her? I don’t know what parts of him were passed to me.’’

‘‘But you knew your mother.’’

‘‘Yes, and she was wonderful. Beautiful. And yours wasn’t. She beat you, physically and emotionally. She made you a victim. Why are you letting her keep you one? Why are you letting her win even now?’’

‘‘It’s me now, Anna. There has to be something twisted, something sour inside a person to make them the way she was. I came from that.’’

‘‘Sins of the fathers, Ethan?’’

‘‘I’m not taking on her sins, I’m talking about heredity. You can pass on the color of your eyes, your build. Weak hearts, alcoholism, longevity. Those things can run in families.’’

‘‘You’ve given this a lot of thought.’’

‘‘Yeah, I have. I had to make a decision, and I made it.’’

‘‘So you decided you could never marry or have children.’’

‘‘It wouldn’t be fair.’’

‘‘Well, then, you’d better talk to Seth before too long.’’

‘‘Seth?’’

‘‘Someone has to tell him he’s never going to be able to have a wife and children. It’s best if he knows that early, so he can try to protect himself from becoming emotionally involved with a woman.’’

For a trio of heartbeats he could only gape at her. ‘‘What the hell are you talking about?’’

‘‘Heredity. We can’t be sure what bad traits Gloria DeLauter passed down to him. God knows she’s gotsomething twisted inside her, just as you said. A whore, a drunk, a junkie, from all accounts.’’

‘‘There’s nothing wrong with that boy.’’