“I accept,” I said. “On one condition.”

“Name it,” Thorne said.

“The lab must be located in Chicago,” I said. “My sons are not moving.”

“We already have a facility in Skokie,” Thorne said. “It is yours.”

“Thank you, Aris,” I said.

“We will send the contract to your personal email within the hour,” he said. “Get some sleep, Emma. You have earned it.”

I hung up the phone.

I looked down at my hands.

They had stopped shaking.

“You got the grant?” Blake asked.

He was watching me from the other side of the seat.

“Yes,” I said. “The Laurentian Foundation is funding my lab.”

“That is a prestigious appointment,” he said. “Congratulations.”

“It means I don’t need your money, Blake,” I said. “It means Helena cannot buy my silence, and she cannot buy my children.”

“I never wanted her to,” he said.

“You let her hold the purse strings for years,” I said.

“I was blind,” he said. “I was trying to build something I thought would make my father proud. I did not see what she was doing until it was too late.”