I stopped answering them.

Dana helped me make a list of essential contacts: the girls’ school, their pediatrician, my employer, the advocate’s office, Carter and an attorney who could advise me about family law.

Everyone else could wait.

Mark’s cousin Greg approached us outside a grocery store one afternoon.

I had taken Emma to buy milk and fresh fruit.

She was delighted by a box of brightly colored cereal and had been telling me about a picture she wanted to draw.

“Jeslyn.”