I did not block them — Rebecca had warned me off any dramatic gesture while custody was still open — but I turned the volume all the way down, and distance, I was learning, requires no announcement to anyone.

Chapter 8 — The Evidence He Couldn’t Charm

Our apartment slowly became a home, though the children took it at different speeds.

Maisie made friends up and down the building within a week, trading stickers and knock-knock jokes in the stairwell.

Caleb started waking from nightmares and padding into my room before dawn to burrow in against my back.

And Sadie became unnaturally, painfully helpful. One night I found her at the sink, washing plastic cups with the grim focus of someone completing an assignment she’d been graded on.

“Hey,” I said gently.