Grace immediately claimed the bedroom with the yellow curtains.
Emily stood at the living-room window and whispered, “We really did it.”
“Yes.”
She looked at me.
“Are you scared?”
“Very.”
She smiled.
“Good.”
I laughed.
“Why good?”
“Because you tell us being brave means doing things while you’re scared.”
Sometimes your children return your own words when you need them most.
By afternoon, the girls were asleep.
I called Rebecca.
She answered on the first ring.
“Claire.”
“What did you mean?”
A pause.
“When you retained me, I ran the standard court search.”
“Yes?”
“There was a prior filing under your name.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“When?”
“January twenty-fourth.”
The day after the photograph.
“I didn’t file anything.”
“I know that now.”
“What was it?”
“A draft petition for dissolution. It was entered electronically, then withdrawn less than twenty-four hours later.”
My mouth went dry.
“Who filed it?”
