One year after my divorce, I ran into my ex-husband in the pediatric wing of the hospital where I worked

July of that year, six weeks in, she drove to Ellery and sat in my kitchen and asked me straight out whether I thought Rhett had made the complaint.

And I said no.

And she said: “Petra. Look at me and say that again.”

And I said no again, and I held her eye while I did it, because I am extremely good at that and always have been.

And she did not argue. She said, “Okay,” and made the tea, and then she said one thing before she left,