I was stressed about the firm.

We’re a family, Jessi, we’re a family—”

We’re a family. He had discovered the word the moment he needed it, the same way he had discovered the children the moment they were useful as a shield.

Ten minutes earlier, he had been filing to end our family on a porch, with a mistress in my earrings and my bags packed.

Now, with everything collapsing, he reached for the word family like a drowning man reaching for a rope.