EVERYTHING HE OWED HER
"I don't want a version of it. I don't want the edited story. Tell me like I'm twenty-four and can handle the real truth."
She looked at me for a long moment. Something shifted in her expression, not her usual composure, but something older and more tired. Her hands, flat on the desk, pressed down a little. I remembered what Myra had said: Watch her hands.
"There are things," she said carefully, "that come from a past you weren't part of. Decisions were made before you were old enough to have a say. I've spent twenty years trying to shield you from what came of those choices, and I am..." She paused. "I know my ways haven't been perfect."