FAT, BARREN, AND REJECTED
“That’s not what happened.”
“Isn’t it?” My voice had gone harder than I intended, though I made no effort to soften it. “Because from where I’m standing, that’s precisely the shape of it. A stranger walks into my house wearing a name that isn’t hers. A rumor happens to surface, conveniently, about a story only a handful of people could possibly know the details of. And now, at the exact moment she’s exposed by someone with every reason to want her gone, she suddenly confirms the one story guaranteed to make me hesitate before throwing her out.”