“Your mother is doing this because of you,” I said. “Because you couldn’t leave us alone.”

I hung up the phone and leaned my head against the cool wood of the door.

I had to get the boys to school.

I had to keep their lives normal, even if the world was crumbling around us.

The walk to the elementary school was a blur of gray concrete and biting wind.

I kissed each of them on the forehead at the gate.

“I love you,” I told them, holding them a second longer than usual. “Be good today.”

“We will, Mom,” Sam said, looking at me with a slight frown. “Are you okay?”

“I’m just cold,” I lied.

I watched them walk inside the brick building until the heavy double doors clicked shut.

Then I walked back to the apartment, my mind racing.

I needed a lawyer, but I couldn’t afford the kind of representation Helena Harrington had.

Her firm was one of the most powerful in New York, with a satellite office in Chicago.

I sat at my desk and opened my laptop.