Charlie sat frozen on the edge of the hospital bed, her perfectly manicured hands gripping the stiff white sheets. Hearing Linsy’s calm, detached recounting of the afternoon’s horror, the crazed confession, the shove, the icy water, the fight for her child, felt like being doused in gasoline and set alight. But it was Linsy’s quiet resignation, the utter lack of anger toward the man who had created this vortex of danger, that finally shattered her.

Her eyes, wide with a fury so profound ...