The phone on my kitchen counter began ringing at eleven o’clock.

I picked up the receiver on the third ring, my hand steady despite the cold that had settled into the apartment.

Evelyn’s voice came through the line in a breathless, pleading whisper.

“Your father came all that way and you wouldn’t even speak to him,” she said.

I could hear the frantic metallic click of her gold wedding band sliding up and down her finger on the other end of the line.

“He tried to force me to lie to the grand jury, mother,” I said.