Letty had never liked this room. Evan’s interior designer—a former girlfriend, Tanya claimed—had pulled out all the stops, covering the walls in an antiqued silver mirrored wallpaper that Tanya claimed cost four thousand dollars a roll. The ceiling was mirrored, too, and the floor was covered in a thick, furry white carpet that reminded Letty of a shaggy dog, but not in a good way. There was a crystal chandelier over the heavily draped canopy bed, and the bedspread and piles of pillows were all shades of gray and silver and white. Letty thought it was too new, too shiny, too everything, but of course Tanya proclaimed it chic and elegant.

“In here.” She followed Tanya into the walk-in closet, which was as big as Letty’s studio apartment. The closet had its own chandelier, and an antique silver-gilded trifold mirror, and a little silk-covered sofa that the designer called a canapé. A cabinet in the middle of the room held a treasure trove of Tanya’s jewelry. Three walls held racks and racks of designer clothes and accessories. Tanya had organized them by size, from what she called her “pre-Maya” days as a size two, to her “disgusting-pig post-baby body” size, which was, after all, still only a size eight.

One whole wall of the closet held shelves and shelves of handbags and shoes. Her boots, dozens of pairs of them, were lined up in rows on the floor of the shoe rack. Tanya reached around and pulled out a tall black suede boot with a wicked three-inch-high spike heel.

“These boots are made for walking,” she said, her tone conspiratorial. She shoved her hand down in the boot and pulled out a canvas tote, the kind fancy grocery stores gave to customers who thought they could save the planet by buying thirty-dollar-a-pound wild-caught salmon.

“What’s that?”

“My go-bag,” Tanya whispered. “Like Mama always had.”

Terri had drummed into her daughters’ heads that they should always be ready to leave any situation when, in her words, “the house burns down.”

“Girls,” she’d say to them. “A man will tell you he loves you. He might believe it too. But one day, he’s gonna wake up and decide you’re too old, too fat, too loud, or just too you. You gotta be prepared. Like they told you in Girl Scouts.

“Start by putting a little money away, every payday, no matter what. I mean cash money, where you can put your hands on it, day or night. Hide it good. And make a plan, so you can grab that bag and get out fast when the time comes.”