After four hours we signed.

My parents would repay $14,000 on the sale of the vacation home; Lucienne agreed to a court-ordered wage garnishment for the remaining $4,400.

I didn’t recover every dollar.

I recovered something I hadn’t known was for sale until I stopped selling it: the whole of my own life.

When the first payment cleared, I opened a high-yield trust for Rowan and named it the Freedom Fund, and every month I deposited the exact sum I used to spend rescuing Lucienne.

One afternoon Rowan climbed into my lap while I was reviewing it and asked why it was called that.

“It’s for your college, your dreams, your future,” I told him.

“And it will never, ever be used to buy anyone’s love.”

“Can you buy love, Mom?”

“No, sweetheart.