“She will learn how our family works.”

I pulled the heavy blankets up to her waist.

Evelyn turned her face toward the window, watching the streetlights filter through the oak branches outside.

“I just want to see our son happily married,” she said.

I turned off the bedside lamp, leaving the room in shadow.

Nine hours later, the venue contracts arrived at my office.

Brenda Lawson, fifty-two, sat across from me at the glass conference table in the Abernathy Capital Investments office.

As our senior corporate counsel, she demanded flawless legal execution of all our commercial lease contracts.