So no.”

She got up, and she picked up her purse, and she said to me, “Jessi, I’ll come Thursday for the children,” and she walked out of my house.

Part Ten: The Arithmetic

I got a lawyer on the Thursday.

Her name was Ruth Oyelaran and she had an office above a florist’s on Main with eleven diplomas on the wall and a box of tissues on the desk that she moved out of my reach in the first ten minutes, which I have always liked her for.

“Most people cry in here,” she said.