Caroline sat alone in her high-backed wooden chair, looking across the open room at her three ten-year-old children gathered around the long oak drafting table.

Rowan held a clear plastic triangle steady against the wood, helping June guide a fine line of crimson watercolor along the outer edge of a drawn garden wall.

Ellis leaned over the center of the table, using his small brass pocket ruler to check the scale of the window openings on his cedar model house.

Caroline touched the thin silver chain around her neck, her fingers resting against the cool metal link for a quiet moment before sliding her hand down to her desk drawer.

She opened the heavy bottom mahogany drawer, reaching past the client contracts and structural permits to the dark corner at the back.