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Taking her usual seat on the overstu ed couch covered in colorful fabrics, Sloane moved a couple of quilted pillows out of her way.

“So, are you here visiting your mom? How is she?” Dr.

Lerner asked as she took the armchair across the massive co ee table from Sloane.

It took half an hour just to catch her up on the last six months. As she talked, her therapist set her notepad to the side and just listened.

“Sloane, I’m so sorry you’re going through this tough time. How are you coping with being your mother’s caretaker? With her borderline personality diagnosis, it—”

“I know, Doc. I took some space recently. Moving into the pool house has made things a lot more manageable.

Something finally clicked in her. She’s been using the lifts to get out of bed, go downstairs, wheel around causing havoc for the nurse.” She smiled. “I think she might start leaving the house again soon. She was apparently asking my sister about hiring a driver, though I told her there are pretty easy ways to adapt a car for her to drive.”

“That’s a huge step forward for her,” Dr. Lerner agreed.

“I’m relieved to hear that, but you have to watch out for your wellbeing. Emotional fatigue is real, and you were running on empty for a long time.”

Sloane nodded, promising to go back to regular visits again so they could both keep an eye on her pressure valve.

Dr. Lerner had been the first person to make her realize her dreams of New York were tied up in her long-time desire to break free from her family in general and her mother in particular. She was the only person who’d laugh at her joke about the universe having a sick sense of humor.

“Have you talked to Nikki since the breakup? Last time we chatted you two were making some pretty big plans for the future.”

Sloane’s stomach soured at the thought of her, but it didn’t hurt like it used to. More like a reaction to the memory of the old pain. Like an injury to a ghost limb.

“Nope. I deleted all my social media and blocked her contacts, but I’d be shocked if she tried to reach out to me again. She sees me staying here as not choosing her, and I get it. Nikki knows the hell my mother put me through. How she went out of her way to pit me and my sister against each

other so we had no chance of bonding even as little kids. She can’t understand why I would stay when she regularly tried to manipulate me and sabotage me with fake health scares.”

Sloane shook her head. “I can’t even blame her. Part of me doesn’t understand either.”

“A child’s relationship with a parent like yours is complicated, Sloane. You’ve done a lot of work in here to understand that with her diagnosis, she lacks insight into her own dysfunction. You’ve gained a level of empathy that makes it hard to leave a sick woman behind.”

Sloane slouched and grabbed a pillow to begrudgingly hug. “Insight is over-rated.”

Dr. Lerner chuckled. “They don’t call it bliss, that’s for sure. Did you find another job yet?”

“My aunt called in a mortifying favor. You’re looking at one of Miami’s very own Assistant State Attorneys. Dorky badge and all,” she joked.

“Wow. That’s a big change. How do you like it? Can’t be easy work.”

“It’s a hell of a lot more emotionally taxing, that’s for sure,” Sloane agreed. “The law itself is relatively simple and the o ce politics are nonexistent by comparison to the shenanigans at Lowry Pendergast, but since I have to be there for three years, I guess I’m making the best of it.”

Sloane hesitated. “There might also be . . . someone.”

Dr. Lerner’s eyebrows flew up her creased forehead.

“Want to tell me about it?”

“She’s insu erable,” Sloane snapped. “We went to law school together. She was one of those super rank-obsessed

people. I’m sure you know the type from your own days at UM.”

“And yet here you are talking about her,” Dr. Lerner added with a knowing grin.

“She didn’t start out insu erable,” Sloane explained as memories of their friendship flashed in her mind like vignettes. “And since working together, she’s gone back to being slightly less annoying.”

“Uh huh,” Dr. Lerner said, prodding her to get to the good stu .