“An investigator will be assigned, and they’ll take it from here.” I hung up and felt the first full breath move through me in two days.

It was out of my hands now, in the sense that mattered — in the hands of people trained and empowered to actually look, which is all I had ever wanted.

I did not imagine that raising my hand would be the thing that put a target on my back.

But it was.

Chapter 11 — District Counsel

The relief lasted about ten minutes.