And then there was another thing still, that sometimes, the truth was so complicated that, even when you suddenly found yourself compelled to tell it, you just didn't even know how to find the right words.

Especially when you never even had your own words.

"Because then I wouldn't have to come back," Astrid said, staring again at the ceiling with some small level of horror that she was even saying anything. "But probably wouldn't matter. A whole country and twenty-seven years wasn't far enough; what difference would an extra ocean make?"

Apparently, there were words after all, once Astrid never expected to be spoken outloud to anyone. So then she was very still, as if, if she didn't move, maybe Sabine wouldn't have noticed.