It was not the executive salary I had commanded before Leo was born.

It was a step down the ladder from where I had left it.

And I did not care in the slightest.

I walked out of that building holding a signed employment contract in my hand, and I made it as far as my car before I had to stop.

I sat behind the wheel in the parking lot, and I cried, but they were not the tears I had been holding back for four days.

They were something else entirely.