Cynthia hadn’t come in seeking her mother’s approval, only to inform her of her plans. But getting her approval released a tension that she didn’t even know had gripped her until it disappeared. “What?”

“Reinstate the Secret Service detail.”

She gasped. “I sent that email to them like twenty minutes ago!”

“And they forwarded it to me like nineteen minutes ago.” Her mom put a hand on her shoulder. “Please just let them be present. They don’t have to be invasive.”

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. They can be in the same town. But I better not ever see them.”

“Fair enough. I’ll make sure they know that.” Her mom cupped her cheek. “I love you. I hope Rick Norton is a good thing for you.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

The smell of gunpowder mingled with blood burned Cynthia’s nose. Her stomach rolled as she rushed to her father’s side and put her arm around his shoulders. Before she could speak, the sound of a gun cocking in her ear made her blood freeze.

“Tell me, Doctor, how you let my son die,” Chukuwereije said in her ear, his breath hot against her cheek.

Cynthia opened her eyes. Even though she found herself in her own room, her nose still burned with the acrid smell. The taste of fear still filled her mouth. As she sat up, she realized that her tears had soaked the hair at her temples.

Unwilling to try to sleep again, she took a shower, dressed in denim leggings and a loose white T-shirt, and grabbed her suitcase. She left the house at three in the morning. As she drove out of the compound, she saw the flash of headlights in her rearview mirror and knew that her detail followed her. With a sigh, she thought about living in a world that required a security detail to follow someone going on a trip. Sorrow filled her heart as she thought about the violence that drove some people.

To see the world full of such pain, such hate, made her wish she could fix it. She wanted the power to make it all go away, to heal the nations and bring love and peace to all the lands. Even though she didn’t have the ability to affect the entire world, she did have the power and the gifts to affect small portions of it. Maybe pouring herself into work would help her psyche heal from the fear that had bruised it recently.

She had always loved visiting Aunt Kate at work, seeing the waiting room full of pregnant women, knowing that her aunt helped them through their entire pregnancies to have healthy births and healthy babies. She’d observed Aunt Kate during family functions, accepting phone calls, leaving because she had to do a delivery, regaling her and her mom with stories and anecdotes.