Do not humiliate me in front of all these people over something we can fix at home tomorrow.”

And I will be honest: for one brief second, that plea almost worked.

I have spent my entire adult life in a profession that runs on discipline, on handling problems quietly, on keeping private things private and never, ever making a public scene.

Everything in my training pulled me toward smoothing this over, walking the aisle, dealing with it behind closed doors.

But then I looked down at my daughter, tucked against Patricia’s side, and I understood the actual trade being offered to me.