CHAPTER 15
After spending more than a decade in New York City, life in North Carolina moved at a slower pace than I remembered. I reveled in long, luxurious days reading and sipping sweet tea. Before long, I settled into a routine: walk in the morning with Papá, lunch somewhere quiet out of the way, read for a couple of hours, check in with Meili, stay offline, keep my head down until I needed to head back to New York for the trial. Severance pay appeared in my bank account every two weeks. I dreamed of another life where I might one day work again.
In June, Tara returned to the Tri-State Area permanently. I told the contractor to call her with any and all questions about the house. Her word was law. Anything went, as long as we didn’t spend more than the insurance company gave me, and T
