At dawn she washed her face, woke the boys, made pancakes shaped badly like stars, and told them they were going to have a little adventure for a while.
Children accept strangeness more easily when love remains legible.
The weeks before the hearing became a disciplined blur. Martin warned her that timing would matter. If she revealed everything too early, Julian’s team might move assets faster or shape a narrative around her hidden identity. If she waited too long, custody arguments might calcify around the image of her as unstable and dependent. So they held until the hearing, building a file that could collapse the false story in one public motion.
“Why public?” Martin asked once, though he already knew.
“Because private correction still lets him keep the mask,” she said.
Martin nodded. “And you want the record.”
“I want the truth where it cannot be re-edited.”