When the illness grants her a reprieve, she will set up her own firm, with a few clients who still believe in her and are happy to follow her. She will take Johnson & Lockwood to court. She’s a good lawyer, one of the best in town. She will make public the discrimination she suffered, in the name of the thousands of men and women written off by the world of work too soon, and who had endured, like her, a two-fold penance. She will stand up for them. Doing what she does best. That will be her fight. She will learn to live differently, make time for her children, take days off to attend their school fêtes and end-of-year-shows. She won’t miss a single one of their birthdays. She will take them on holiday, summers in Florida, winters skiing. No one will take those moments from her, they will be part of her life, too. There will be no more wall, no more lies. Never again will she be a woman cut in two.

Meanwhile, she must fight the mandarin with the weapons that nature has seen fit to grant her: her courage, her strength, her determination, her intelligence too. Her family, her children, her friends. And the doctors, nurses, oncologists, radiologists, pharmacists, all of them fighting for her, every day, at her side. Suddenly, it seems as if she is on the brink of an epic quest, carried along by an extraordinary energy. She feels a wave of warmth pass through her, a new effervescence, a sensation she has never felt before, like butterfly wings beating gently in her stomach.

Out there is the world, and her children. She will fetch them from school today. She can picture their astonishment already – it’s something she’s never done, or hardly ever. Hannah will be very touched, no doubt. The twins will run to her. They will comment on her new hair. And Sarah will explain it all. Everything. The mandarin, her work, the war they will fight together.

As she leaves the salon, Sarah thinks of the woman who gave her hair, of the Sicilian workers who disentangled and treated it, with such infinite patience. She thinks of the woman who assembled the wig. She feels as if the whole world is working to help her heal. She remembers the phrase from the Talmud: Whoever saves one life saves the world entire. Today, the whole world is saving her, and Sarah is filled with gratitude.

She is here today, yes, right here, and she will be here for a long time to come.

As she walks away with that thought, she smiles.

EPILOGUE

My work is finished.

The wig is there, in front of me.

The feeling that overwhelms me is something unique.

No one has seen it yet.

This joy is mine alone.

The pleasure of a task completed.

Pride in a job well done.

Like a child that has finished a drawing, I smile.