“Iris Elizabeth,” my mother said, her gentle voice going thin and icy.

“Family doesn’t treat family like this.”

“My name is on the title,” I said.

“I’m hanging up now, Mom.”

I tapped the red icon on the screen and turned the phone face down on the table.

At five fifteen, I pulled my Toyota into the visitor garage of the glass office tower on Capitol Mall.

The regional office of my structural engineering firm was on the fifth floor, looking out over the wide bend of the Sacramento River.

At five thirty, David Miller stepped out of his corner office and waved me inside.