Twenty years on, I am handing over a secret to its rightful owner. I can’t bear to carry it around anymore.

and

I am not at peace when the sun sets and the Book of Life is sealed: I always see that soft spot of complicity.

Then I don't suppose I can argue him into it. To me it sounds like she's about to reveal her participation in a secret government experiment in biowarfare, rather than confess her refusal to publicly reveal the fact that a boorish professor put his hand on her thigh. As for"twit," well, that's another value judgment that doesn't seem worth the effort to justify. But I do apologize for having offended him. As it happens, I agree with his general point that an Ann-Coulterish desire to offend for the sake of giving offense is immature (for instance, I think those"affirmative action bake sales" are in rotten taste). But I thought I was well short of that line here.