everything known third-hand, sworn to silence — "Clenette, you my half Sister, I…"

The whole horror reaches us down a chain of relays, Clenette telling what Reginald said that Wardine said, so that even the most urgent facts arrive at two and three removes, spoken by people about other people who cannot speak for themselves. And the one message that must not travel is the true one: Wardine binds the children to silence on pain of her own death, so that the abuse is sealed inside an oath and the only channel that could save her is the one nobody is allowed to open. Landed here on the relayed-speech and forbidden-disclosure mechanics; the abuse etiology is fathers-sons'/depression's. [sweep · shared-ground fathers-sons]