Reza helped Idelle file for child support and a permanent protective order against her ex-husband, Everett.

He tried to dodge the process servers by switching jobs, but the filings went through regardless.

Zola got a spot in a local preschool, and Idelle stepped into a full-time position at a logistics firm.

Espe accepted the coordinator role, and within a month had built steady partnerships with three shelters, a youth center, and a soup kitchen, along with a simple, airtight system: at closing, staff set aside the surplus, logged it, and signed off on each day’s pickup.

Nothing left the building unaccounted for.

“After everything that happened,” she told Corwin one afternoon, dry as toast, “I want every loaf of bread to have a paper trail.” When Everett resurfaced ten months on, demanding money over an old car and unsupervised time with Zola, Idelle felt the old fear rise — and her mother sat her down at the kitchen table.