Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH HAD BEEN CLAIRE’S FRIEND TOOThis hurt Claire differently.
Before I dated Claire, she and Mara had been friends.
Not best friends.
But close.
They worked together.
Went hiking.
Shared birthdays.
The photograph Sophie carried proved it.
Claire had spent six years publicly accepting the story that Mara stole from us.
Privately, she sometimes doubted.
Why didn’t she act?
Because Douglas was her father.
Because believing Mara meant believing her father was a criminal.
Because family loyalty can become intellectual anesthesia.
When Mara contacted her, Claire finally had evidence.
And still delayed.
That became the central failure of our marriage.
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Not that Claire loved her father.
That she repeatedly treated truth as dangerous only when it threatened him.
