I set my phone on the kitchen table and looked down at the thirty-eight hundred dollars left in our main checking account.

A heavy knock rattled the glass in the front door before I could stand up.

I opened the door to a woman in a gray suit holding a clipboard, a leather ID badge resting against her lapel.

“Julian Morales?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“My name is Sandra Ruiz,” she said, showing her Maricopa County Department of Child Safety badge.

“I’m here to do an unannounced home safety evaluation based on an emergency intake report filed this morning.”