I have thought about that a great deal, about how the worst night of a life and the best can turn out to be the very same night, and about how rarely, in the moment, we can tell which one we are living through.

Chapter 14 — Here’s Your Money Back

I looked up from the binder, and I found that I could not speak, and across the small office Julian was watching me with an expression that had traveled a long way overnight, from bored contempt to something that looked a great deal like shame.

He reached into the pocket of his shirt, and he pulled out four one-hundred-dollar bills, folded together, and he stepped forward and pressed them into my hand.

My four hundred dollars.