Three days after my twin sons were born, my husband brought twenty-two members of his family into a hospital room and offered me two hundred thousand dollars to sign away my marriage, my children, and my right to ever ask about their company's accounts. They expected me to cry. I read every page and signed all of them.

It is not a lot of money to buy that clause.

I looked up at Caspian.

"Are you certain this is what you want?"

"I've never been more certain in my life. Don't make it harder than it is. Sign."

I looked at the camera in the corner. Then at the nurse. Then at Deshawn Pryor in the doorway.

Then I looked at every one of the twenty-two people who had chosen to stand in that room.

I got a pen out of my bag and I signed every page.

The relief came off Caspian like heat. Marisol put her arm through his.

Adelaide leaned down close to my ear.

"We'll come in the morning. The boys belong with us now."

I looked at her and I did not say anything.

They filed out in about ninety seconds. Somebody held the door for Marisol.

The nurse — her name is Ottilie Brandt and I have sent her a card every year since — came over and crouched down in front of that wheelchair and said, "Are you all right?"