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JJ felt numb, but she didn’t feel guilty.
Oh sure, she felt guilt on a regular basis about interactions with her daughter, things she could have done differently, but those were little, indulgent pangs, bits of her own mother’s psychology she’d never been able to shake off. The core belief she’d gotten from her father was something JJ’s mother had never understood: don’t borrow guilt or sorrow; life will give you enough that’s legitimately your own.
So JJ didn’t feel guilty about being with Harlan—watching over Harlan—while her daughter was taken. Nor did she feel guilty leaving her daughter with Dorothy and Otto. She wasn’t angry with Dorothy for letting Evie run next door. There was no point in it. She would have done the same. The person to be angry with was the man who’d taken he
