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“Did you ever ask him if he did it?”

“No,” she said quietly “I believed in him I believed and believed and believedthen his last appeal was denied and he stopped co out to see ot in the car accident?”

“Yeah”

“Waiting for hih what I did”

“I have to believe, Mom,” he said

“A son should And theyou’re feeling That’s the man who is your father, not the killer you’ve heard about all your life But try tounderstand why I can’t stand beside you on this I’h I am ashamed of that”

Noah reached over and held her hand “You were alone, though I have you”

Winona stood at theof her beach house, watching the road above It was the ninth of January, a cold and blustery day that hinted at a coray sky y An inauspicious start to the new year

The school bus ca for a few ain, she stood there, still staring out at the bare, wintry backyard, feeling a rush of loneliness on this Monday

Last night she’d lain in her lonely bed for hours, trying to figure out how best to proceed with Mark She’d given hi he’d walk over here one night and say he was sorry, but it hadn’t happened November had rolled into December, and then into a new year, and still he hadn’t walked from his house to hers She hts on late into the night, and still, nothing

Last night, for the first ti for her She was the one who’d made the mistake (she hadn’t told him about the petition; she should have; she saw that now), so y

The ht about it, the more likely it felt

Dressing carefully, she bundled up in her wool coat and headed next door With only athe doorbell

He answered quickly, co to the door in his slippers and robe, with his hair still wet frohtfor me to say I’m sorry”

The smile she needed so desperately didn’t arrive “Winona,” he said in an impatient tone, “we’ve had this discussion before Too often”