“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, with a defiant glare. I didn’t argue, but waited. The indignation gradually bled out of her face. “For a little while, Mom seemed so happy—happier than I’ve ever seen her—but then one day she turned mean. Like whatever we said or did was the wrong thing. And Dad—she was awful to him. She called him weak, and a coward, and said she should never have married him. She did it in front of me and Dennis, like she didn’t care if we heard. And Dad hunched his shoulders and took it until she was done.”
