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left a note on his desk?” she asked
Noelle.
    “No problem,” Noelle said, looking relieved that Lynn wasn’t
going to keep pressing her.
    “Thanks. I’ll just be a minute.” She walked into the office
she’d worked so hard to decorate for him, choosing colors that were warm and
inviting and furnishings that were tasteful and, at Ed’s insistence, far more
expensive than they’d needed to be.
    She sat in his ergonomic leather chair behind the oversize
mahogany desk and opened the bottom drawer. Reaching into the compartment hidden
behind a stack of company stationery, she plucked out two hundred-dollar bills
and guiltily stuffed them into her purse.
    To make good on the request that had gotten her into the room,
she removed a piece of stationery and jotted a quick note asking Ed to call her
immediately on his return, folded it and shoved it into an envelope, then tucked
it into a corner of the pristine blotter centered on his desk.
    “All done,” she told Noelle, exiting quickly. “I left the note
on his desk. Please make sure he reads it, okay? As soon as he sees my
handwriting he’ll toss it in the trash, otherwise.”
    “I’ll do my best,” Noelle promised, then regarded Lynn
apologetically. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help.”
    “You helped enough,” Lynn assured her.
    Back in her car, she found herself trembling for the second
time that day. No matter how strongly she felt that she was owed much more than
that two hundred dollars, she couldn’t help thinking that she’d turned into a
thief. That’s what this divorce was doing to her.
    Then she thought of her kids and squared her shoulders. She’d
done what she had to do and if anyone should be ashamed of their behavior these
days, it was Ed. And she’d tell him exactly that if he had the audacity to make
an issue of this.
    * * *
    Even with the promise of another paycheck soon and the
money she’d stolen from petty cash in her purse, Lynn couldn’t bring herself to
go on a spending splurge at the grocery store. Who knew what other crises might
arise before Ed finally paid up the way he was supposed to?
    She left the store with two small sacks of groceries and a
heavy heart. This would barely get them through the weekend, and then what? A
couple of hundred dollars seemed like a fortune, but it wouldn’t last long. It
would barely cover the electric bill, much less make any dent in the overdue
mortgage.
    After putting the few pitiful purchases into the refrigerator
and pantry, she knew she had to do something more to address the situation. Not
even another paycheck was going to solve things, not with interest and late fees
adding up on their bills. Reluctantly, she picked up the phone and called
Helen.
    “The support check hasn’t come again,” she told the attorney.
“I just spent practically the last dime I have on enough groceries to get us
through the next couple of days.” She drew in a deep breath, then confessed, “I
actually resorted to taking money from petty cash in Ed’s office. I know it’s
theft, but what was I supposed to do, Helen? Let my kids starve?”
    Helen uttered an epithet that would have blistered Ed’s ears
had she said it in court. “Look, I can’t very well condone stealing, but let’s
pretend you never told me about that. Believe me, I get how desperate you must
have been to resort to that.”
    “It’s not going to make a dent in the bills,” Lynn said in
frustration. “But it will cover groceries for a couple of weeks and one or two
other things, if I pinch every penny.”
    “I’ll stop by with a check before the day’s out,” Helen
promised her. “And before you say no, believe me, I will get it back from Ed,
even if I have to take it out of his sorry hide!”
    Lynn smiled. “I want to be there for that,” she said. “Just
anticipating it will be the one huge bright spot in my life.”
    “What about those bills you mentioned?” Helen asked. “Are you
managing? Is Ed covering what