If Stefan was seeking public attention for his cause, now he would get it.

“It will be okay. It’s about something different,” Stefan explained to me, anxiety carving his young face into sharp lines. “It’s something positive.”

I didn’t want to damage his hope, but I knew the danger here.

“I do so want you to be part of this, too,” the producer Deanie Kessler said when she called me back. “I think it will help Stefan feel more confident.”

No punch pulled, no heartstring untugged.

“What could anyone want to know about me?”

“You could explain, as Stefan’s mother, what it’s like to be you.”

“There’s no sympathy for that. For the mother of the monster.”

“Don’t be so sure, Thea. How many other people do you think have stood in your shoes?”

I started to splutter out a further objection, but she went on. “How many other people are broken because they have to live with the fact that their children have done something awful? Ordinary people, who tried to live careful lives. They always tried to do the right thing. They are terrified for their kids but also furious with them for dismantling their precious dreams. Maybe people need to see that other side. Maybe they need to understand it. Maybe they need to know they’re not alone.”

If she had given me the traditional something-good-can-come-of-this rap, I could have more easily turned my back. But now I thought of Roman Villera’s mother and the grief in that brief glance. “You can tell your side. You’re not really a woman who raised a monster. And maybe some people whose stories are even worse will feel better.”

“Whose stories could be worse?”

But I knew there were worse cases. The lawyer who represented Stefan at his arraignment had a client who was all of fourteen when he killed his mother, her sister and her parents at Thanksgiving dinner: I would never forget the man telling me that Thanksgiving was apparently a favorite setting for these kinds of massacres. He was able to get the kid released into his father’s custody after just eighteen months. I remembered, also, thinking at the time, how could his father want him?

How, indeed?

“Anyway,” Deanie Kessler went on, “Of course the big focus is on The Healing Project to consider. It’s been quite the thing, right? We talked with the Hodges and Roman Villera. Mrs. Slaney was definitely not interested! But maybe this way of focusing on it, Stefan can get credit for doing something really positive. And maybe more people will volunteer for the project. Maybe it can happen in other places.”

“Do you think people who see this will really give him credit?” I said, even as I thought, do you think some crazy will kill him?