“Tell me what you need from me,” I said, “and tell me how we make it airtight.

Because he is never going to be alone with my daughters again.”

Chapter 9 — Ten O’Clock

At ten o’clock that morning, I went back to the house — but not alone, and not as the crying, waiting woman Blake was certain I had become.

I went back with my brother beside me, and with an emergency family court officer, and with a folder of my own now, one that Ivan had assembled in ninety minutes of the most focused work I have ever watched a person do.

Blake and Danielle were in the kitchen when we arrived, casually drinking coffee, entirely relaxed, convinced that I was across town at Ivan’s house, crying into a mug and waiting for Blake to decide whether to apologize.