“A mother carrying a Vance heir shouldn’t have to pinch pennies for a crib.”

She uncapped a gold fountain pen and wrote three thousand five hundred dollars on the top check, leaving the payee line blank.

“Take the check,” she said.

“We can forget the unpleasantness of this past month.”

“I’ll keep the estimate under two thousand,” I said, putting the swatches back into my accordion folder.

“Don’t skimp on yourself,” she said, tapping the pen twice against the checkbook.

“Who’s handling your legal filings now that you’ve left the corporate office?”