It confuses Lando, at first. It takes him a while to realise that you can be firm to be kind, that strictness can be a form of care, that punishment can bring peace, that an act of discipline can be an act of mercy.

As if every bit of breath had been sucked out of his body, he visibly sagged back into the thin comfort of his easy chair. Izzy had the distinct feeling that her father had been possessed in these moments, that someone else was speaking through him. It didn’t make her love him more, but it made her understand him just a little, which was maybe all

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At one level, a sense of inherent loyalty means that we would very much like to be able to let bygones be bygones. Especially as we watch our parents diminish in strength and lose status in the world, it seems unfair to them to keep directing an impotent rage towards them and to behave in ways that were anchored in quite different power dynamics... See more