the best in her.
The casual lies told for convenience. The manipulation of others’ perceptions. The selective presentation of facts to create desired impressions.
Traits that had culminated in her elaborate deceptions about our family finances and her cruel rejection when those deceptions were threatened.
“Nature and nurture,” I murmured. “All these years I’ve blamed myself for Amber’s behavior. Wondered what I did wrong in raising her… how I failed to instill better values.”
“But perhaps some of these tendencies were inherited—encoded in her DNA—from a father who could systematically
