"Mommy, you're not eating," Zion called out to me, and I snapped out of my thoughts to find the eyes of Ivan, Zion, and Aaron on me at the dining table where we sat having dinner.

I knew Aaron was the most curious of the three. When I got home hours ago, he asked why I had hurried off without telling the bodyguards where I had gone. I knew the guards he had placed on me had fed him information about my misbehaviour and disappearance. I wasn't ready to talk about it, and I told him I ...