What he was actually doing, though he would not understand it for another half hour, was sneering at the foundation of the very thing that was about to destroy him — the self-made, unshakeable independence of a woman he had been certain could not survive without him.

Chapter 3 — Mommy

I turned my shoulder to walk away from them, because I had learned that the fastest way out of one of Mike’s conversations was to remove yourself from it, and that was the exact moment a high, musical voice cut clean through the jazz and the murmur of the crowd.

“Mommy!”

I barely had a second to brace before a small body in a ruffled yellow dress barreled straight into my legs and wrapped two thin arms around my waist and held on.

“There you are!” Lily said, tipping her face up at me, beaming.