Win the case, yes.

But build the life at the same time, in parallel, so that when the case ends you are not left standing in the rubble of your own victory with no idea who you are.

That, more than any legal maneuver, was what she gave me.

Chapter 13 — My Salary, My Work

Claudia, who had started all of this with a single photograph and four words, now helped me finish the first part of it.

She knew someone who knew someone, the way she always did, and within days I had an interview at a boutique brand agency out in the suburbs, close enough to home that I could still be there for Leo.