The hum of voices felt like a living thing: thick, alive, electric. Cameras flashed like lightning across a clear sky, their light hot against my skin. The podium beneath my fingers was solid mahogany, polished to a mirror sheen. My reflection wavered there, a woman in white, strong and steady… though my pulse trembled just beneath the surface.

I had just dropped the last line of my announcement about the divorce and ready to answer the other one when another question came.

“Ms. West,” a ...