If I'm reading the skin tone right, she's multiracial. Like Byron and me. Like the baby I'm carrying right now. She's almost the living embodiment of why I'm here. Unlike my brother, I can’t smile like there's absolutely nothing wrong.

I cast another look at Matti, the older Jewish guy who brought us here. Matti and my brother say this woman can help me, but I don't know. There may be no help, I think despondently, especially when it comes to Victor.

The woman we're here to see shows up just a few minutes later, and I immediately understand how she managed to Meghan Markle one of the oldest Mafia families in America. She's, like, stupid gorgeous. It's as if the words "ethereal" and "striking" decided to have a human baby. And for whatever reason, that baby was like, "you know what I'm going to do with all this beauty? Go into divorce law."

Byron stills beside me when she walks into the room, but Matti must be radiance immune. He just stands up with an "Amber, thanks for meeting with us."

She has a rock the size of Rhode Island on her wedding ring finger, and that makes me look down at my own finger. My ring of black onyx sandwiched between two raised bars of stainless steel is plain in comparison but way more ominous.

"This ring makes me your owner…I own you now."

A chill runs down my back, recalling Victor’s words to me on our wedding night.

But if Amber, unlike pretty much every other lawyer I've tried to consult with, agrees to take my case, I might be free of him soon. Outrageously beautiful Amber Ferraro, whose sneezes are probably worth more than what I can afford to pay her.

"Hello," she says like she's a normal person and not possibly an angel who fell to earth. "I'm Amber Ferraro."

I just stare at her, wondering, not for the first time, why Victor chose me, a chubby RhIDS animation student, as opposed to somebody like her. If I looked like Amber, maybe I could understand his obsession with me, but—

"Hey, Dawn, you're really quiet,” Amber says. “Can you give me a voice cue, so I know where you are?"

My skin heats with embarrassment, and I want to disappear into the couch. Wow, I'd been so busy staring and comparing myself to her, I'd totally forgotten to answer her question, even though Matti had told me, like, three times she was blind before we got here.

Feeling rude, I lean forward and say, "Hi, I'm Dawn."

But then I stop—because wow, she already knows that. Ugh. Could I be any nerdier?

"Thanks for meeting with me," I finish lamely.

"No problem," she answers, settling into the seat directly across from us on the large wrap-around couch. "Now tell me about this soon-to-be ex who's got you so worried you think Matti's not up for the job."