As soon as court was adjourned, Alex grabbed her coat and her briefcase, rushing down the courthouse steps and hailing a cab to nearby Stuyvesant High. Even though it was only a short walk in normal circumstances, and the spring weather in May would have made for a beautiful walk, the phone call from the school administration had suggested that these were not normal circumstances.

She threw a $20 at the driver and jumped out, rushing up the steps to the school's buzzer.

"Where is she?" Alex asked worriedly, following the assistant principle into the building. "What happened?"

"Right this way, Ms. Cabot," the older woman said, ushering her into a stairwell and up to the second floor. "We're not really sure what happened. A student found her after her study period in the library. She doesn't appear to need medical attention, but we can't get through to her. She's completely unresponsive. She did call for 'Mama' a few times, and her friend Stephanie said you were 'Mama,' which is why we called you. Your wife's phone went straight to voicemail."

Damn it, Olivia, Alex thought. You're good at this, not me.

She followed through swinging double doors until they stopped in front of the girls' bathroom, where a man Alex recognised as a guidance counsellor was standing outside the door, along with a female teacher.

The woman opened the bathroom door, and Alex felt her heart break. Safa was sitting on the floor, back against the tile wall, hugging her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth. Alex couldn't see her face, but her sobs echoed throughout the room, and she made no move to acknowledge Alex's presence.

Alex approached her slowly, her heels clicking on the tile. "Safa," she said softly, leaning towards the girl. "Safa, Mama's here."

Realising she wasn't going to get anywhere with her daughter at a distance, she looked around, frowning, before draping her coat over the top of a stall door, and hanging her briefcase. Scrunching her nose, she touched the wall, and slid down to sit next to Safa on the floor. Safa didn't acknowledge her, and after a moment, Alex reached over and placed her hand gently in the centre of Safa's back, behind her heart, and began to do a meditative breath, counting to four as she inhaled, to four again as she held her breath, and to four again as she exhaled. And each time, she imagined herself breathing in her daughter's anguish, and breathing out I love you.

The assistant principle watched as the formidable woman before her, the mother that administrators feared and sought to appease perhaps most of any of the upper-middle-class academically inclined families in the school, melted and became tender next to the fragile young teen. With her other hand, Alex shooed her away, mouthing a request for privacy, and the principle turned and left the restroom.

Slowly, grimacing at the filth she was sure her suit was accumulating, Alex relaxed, and just as slowly, Safa's sobs began to line up with Alex's breathing. Eventually she stopped shaking. Then, she loosened the grip of her arms around her knees. Finally, after what seemed like forever but had likely only been 15 minutes, she collapsed into Alex's lap and allowed her adoptive mother to put an arm around her and rub her back.

Alex kept her eyes closed and maintained her breathing rhythm, hoping Safa would continue to relax, as she rubbed her daughter's back. She dared not speak, nor ask what had happened, for fear of setting off a new round of uncontrolled despair. They would talk about it later.

Alex continued to rub Safa's back, slowly and deliberately, with her right hand, but reached over with her left hand to brush some of Safa's thick, curly brown hair away from her face, buried in Alex's lap and covering her skirt with tears and snot.

"Shhh," Alex whispered, almost involuntarily, as her thumb wiped away a cheek, then passed oner her temple.

After Safa had been quiet for a long while, she mumbled something into Alex's leg, then turned her face. Bright green eyes, bloodshot from crying and filled with tears, looked up to meet Alex's kind blue eyes.

"Mama," she said, choking out her words, speaking at barely above a whisper. "What did they do to me?"