“We love you, Leah,” she said.

“Nobody wants to watch you struggle.”

She got up and walked back toward the kitchen, her heels clicking on the hardwood.

I stared down at the hundred dollars in my hand.

It was a sliver of the forty-five thousand she’d drained from my hazardous duty account while I was deployed.

She was paying for my cooperation with my own stolen money.

The house went quiet as Evelyn went out to the back patio to water the hanging plants.