James smiled a little. “Are you all right?”

I took a deep breath, and the phantom weight of Chicago lifted off my shoulders. “For the first time in a decade, James, I’m perfectly fine.”

Chapter 7 — The Dawn

A year can turn a raging fire into cool, fertilizing ash.

The news reached me through the grapevine, though I barely cared to listen. Khloe and the baby had gone back to her rural hometown in Ohio, disgraced.

Robert was quietly moved into an assisted-living facility by his mortified extended family. Diane became a shut-in, too humiliated by the public exposure of her hypocrisy to show her face at the country club.

Michael lost his management job over erratic behavior and was last seen downsizing into a bleak studio on the edge of the city.