“I was just keeping them safe, Mr.

Vance,” she said, as if that explained everything, as if it excused nothing that needed excusing.

As though it were nothing.

As though standing between two children and a cruel, powerful woman who could destroy her livelihood with a phone call were simply a thing anyone would do.

It was not nothing.

It was, I would come to understand, everything.

Chapter 13 — The Wedding Is Canceled