“Have you ever heard of Diotima of Mantinea?” Adinah asked. “She’s an important character in Plato’s Symposium. Her ideas were the basis for the ideal of platonic love. She was a real person, though historians disagree about who she was in real life. I was fascinated by her, and so I borrowed her name.” She steepled her hands. “The Diotima Civic Society is dedicated to educating women and men about domestic abuse. We help people get out of abusive situations. You probably know this already, but a great many people who leave an abusive partner in New York end up homeless. They have to navigate the city’s shelter system, which is inadequate and even dangerous. Imagine taking your children and leaving your abuser and ending up in that situation. We help people—mostly women, but some men as well—into safe housing.”

“Sure.” I nodded, glad that she was filling up the air while I recovered.

“A lot of institutions help abusers, not victims. For example, when kids are involved, an abuser has custody rights. The abuser knows where their victim lives. The law pretty much lays out a map for the abuser. Diotima provides assistance that government-funded groups can’t.”

“Like what?” I asked, throwing the wad of tissue in a bin next to the desk. I’d asked about Diotima because I needed to get my head together, but now I was genuinely curious.

“Have you ever heard the name Deisy Garcia?” Adinah asked.

“No.”

“Her case happened a few years back. Deisy went to the police for help with her abusive ex. Only, her report was taken in Spanish and never translated. She made three reports in all, and the police did nothing. Then, one night, her ex came over and stabbed Deisy and their two young daughters to death.”

My stomach clenched. I could imagine the woman’s desperation, and it made my body shake.

“I didn’t know about the case until after she was murdered, but it was like a polestar for me,” Adinah said. “I thought, ‘What could have saved Deisy?’ Some of it is activism, forcing the courts to change and the police to pay attention. But we can’t wait for laws to change. Seventy-five percent of women who are killed by their partners are murdered after they leave. They need to go to great lengths to escape. Sometimes that means they need fake IDs and other help that’s not considered legal.”

I was suddenly struck with new respect for my sister.