“I want enough time to rebuild my life.”

“Then don’t marry me to obtain that,” he said.

“I can help you find a rental and a lawyer without asking anything back.”

It was the first practical offer anyone had made me.

I considered taking it.

But I also wanted to understand why Marlene thought she could control my future with a signature.

Somewhere inside her scheme there was a document she did not want me to read.

“Why did you agree to meet my stepmother?” I asked.