I felt that tightness coming across my chest again. I was certain that the big one was coming; that this was the final retribution for all that I’d caused. I turned off my phone. I lay back on the bed. I shut my eyes. I actually said a decade of the rosary and three Hail Marys. The pain stopped at the top of my left arm, no longer traveling down to my fingers. I won’t say that prayer worked. I will say: some force within me, blocking an artery, waiting for the right moment to snuff out my life, decided I should at least get through today to face my dying wife at the home she had me barred from.

When the pain subsided, I forced myself into the shower. Then I hit the road. I was back in front of the trailer by twelve-thirty, dreading how Klara was going to react.

But it was Elise out the door first. She looked at me with care.

‘You’ve just had bad news, right?’

I told her. She went white and flinched as if someone had just hit her.

‘That’s terrible. How long do the doctors think she has?’

‘Maybe until the end of the day.’

‘You have to get back there now.’

‘I know. And I have to tell Klara …’

She came over and put her hand on my shoulder.

‘I am desperately sorry.’

I went into the trailer, Elise following right behind me. Amber was in a corner, the television on, some cartoon flickering across the screen. Klara was chopping vegetables in the kitchen, her gun on the counter in front of her. She looked up as I came in.

‘What’s happened?’ she asked.

I told her. She tossed the chopping knife aside. She lowered her head. She gripped the countertop. She shut her eyes. She uttered one word:

‘Mama.’

I went over to her. I put my arms around her. She buried her head in my shoulder. She cried. But only for a brief minute. She asked:

‘How long do we have before …?’

‘I don’t know. Your aunt said … hours maybe.’

‘I can’t leave Amber,’ she said.

‘Yes, you can,’ Elise said. ‘I’ll stay with her. Amber will be fine with me. I can take the car you came in and drive with her to a safe place and make contact with my people at the Women’s Choice Group and see what arrangements they’ve made for her. I can then message you on your safe cell phone, Klara. All going well, Amber will be with them tomorrow – out of danger.’

‘Amber is my responsibility …’

‘She’s everyone’s responsibility now,’ Elise said. ‘She will be in the right hands for the next stage of this business. Your mother is dying. You must go see her.’

Elise reached over and picked up Klara’s gun.

‘You give that back,’ Klara said.

‘I will when I see you next.’