“That’s all.

She had nothing else to give me, no money, no power, none of the things you have so much of.

So she gave me the one thing she had.

She gave me herself, her hours, her sleep.

And it turned out that was the only thing I actually wanted.”

She reached over and took Juliet’s hand, and Juliet, who had gone very still and pale through all of this, gripped it back.

“If you fire her,” my mother said, “I am leaving this house with her.