“I was just there for him when he couldn’t accept Sumasa’s disfigurement,” Alice said excitedly. “If anyone is to blame, it’s him for drinking too much. We naturally had a relationship, but what’s wrong with that?”

Johnny, who had been sitting next to her, cutting an apple with his head down, paused with the knife handle in his hand when he heard this.

Alice had told him when he was young that his father loved her very much. They grew up together and promised to spend their ...