How old were you when you first realized your mommy wasn't like all the other mommies?
[Goren slams out of his chair and stands. He walks around the table and sits down next to Wallace. He loosens his collar.]
Seven.
Were you ashamed?
And frightened. It's my turn. How old were you when your father first molested you? [Wallace grows quiet] It's the only explanation for your intense hatred of men. The murders in Thailand were an attempt to correct the tragedy of your childhood. To punish your abuser. Absolving yourself of guilt by using a man to kill other men. Not that you think much of women either. Your mother, she was - what? Too scared, too drunk, too self-absorbed to protect you?
[shaky] No. No. None of those things ever happened. None of those things are true.
That's why you can't form connections. That's why you use sex - it's an exercise in self-hatred. It's why when you came back from Thailand, you supported yourself with prostitution, didn't you, Nicole?
[voice breaking] I am Elizabeth Hitchens, I am a professor in literature...
[pounding his fist in the table] No! No. When I met you, you wanted me to know who you truly were; how smart, how funny, how charming you are. You wanted me to know you, Nicole Wallace, a sparkling, little girl who survived horrible abuse with her wits intact.
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