Cheating looks like cleverness and works more like flinching. Innocent calls it weakness — “an unwillingness to learn, grow or own up to the truth.” What it dodges isn’t the work; it’s the truth, and the truth was the only thing that could have taught you anything.

A test makes the shape of it clear. The test isn’t the end; it is an assessment of your progress, and what really matters is how you were doing before you sat down. Faking the number destroys the only thing the number was for. Take it honestly and you learn where you actually stand.

He reads infidelity the same way. Doing what you know you shouldn’t, behind someone’s back, breaks “the unwritten laws that govern your relationship” — and it gets chosen because facing the truth is harder. If the relationship isn’t working, that is the thing to face: make it work or end it. Either way one question decides it — is this a challenge to grow from, or something to run away from?