“If you go after him with baseless accusations, he’ll shut us out,” Eleanor said.

“He’ll stop bringing Emma over on our alternate weekends.”

I picked up a ruined orange and tossed it into the compost bucket.

“We’ll lose the only piece of Laura we have left,” Eleanor said.

She turned and walked into the back office, leaving me alone with the damaged fruit.

I walked to the front register and opened the heavy metal drawer.

I took ten twenty-dollar bills from the petty cash tray.