“How does burning the house help him?” I whispered.
Attorney Okafor didn’t blink. “Life insurance.”
My stomach turned.
“You have a policy for two and a half million, correct?” she asked.
I nodded, barely able to speak. “Yes.”
“And the beneficiary?” she pressed.
“Quasi.”
She nodded once. “There it is. He dies your life, he collects, he pays his debts, he starts fresh. He’s ‘free.’”
Kenzo’s whisper at the airport echoed in my head.
He said he was finally going to be free.
I looked over at my sleeping child on the couch and felt something in me fracture and fuse at the same time. Love and fury braided together.
“But we didn’t die,” I said.
Attorney Okafor’s expression sharpened. “No. And he doesn’t know that yet.”
A wave of cold moved over my skin.
“What happens when he finds out?” I asked.
“He panics,” she said. “Or he tries again.”
My chest tightened. “We can’t go to the police?”
“We can,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “But not yet, and not just anywhere. Quasi has influence. He has charm. And he has time to spin this into a story where you’re unstable and he’s the grieving husband.”
Her gaze flicked toward Kenzo. “And you have a child who already knows too much.”
I swallowed. “So what do we do?”
“We build a case,” she said simply. “We stay alive long enough to do it right.”
She stood and motioned toward a small back room. “You’ll stay here tonight. It’s not fancy. But it’s locked, and it’s safe.”
I hesitated at the doorway. “Why are you helping us like this?”
Attorney Okafor’s face softened, and for the first time I saw something behind her steel.
“Because your father saved my life once,” she said quietly. “A long time ago. When my own husband tried to kill me.”
The words landed in my bones.
She looked at me with a kind of understanding I’d never seen in anyone’s eyes before. Not sympathy. Recognition.
“I know exactly what this feels like,” she said. “The disbelief, the shame, the way your mind keeps trying to rewrite the truth because the truth is too big.”
My eyes burned.
“I promised Langston if you ever needed me, I’d be here,” she continued. “So yes. I’m here.”
