I felt it now, the deep sense of guilt drowning me. The sadness on her face every time I dropped her back at that house. The fear in her eyes when I knocked on her door that first time—the second and third times, too. She was always so skittish, so demure and obliging. She asked permission for just about everything. She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. She told me that once, said her folks were protective. But she went with me anyway.
