CHAPTER NINETEEN

1

“I can’t believe you took a room at the Larke yesterday when you’re getting married here tonight, Ms. Greenlee,” Mitzi said. She was a new receptionist at the law firm of Eastman and Greenlee, a short, blond woman with a round face and red cheeks. “You live with Mr. Blakethorne anyway. You could have stayed at his house for free.”

Patrice, fluffing at her wedding dress, which hung on a rack in the middle of the room, turned and gave the young woman a smile. “Mitzi, it’s bad luck to see your groom on your wedding day. I didn’t want to see Lawrence this morning. I didn’t want to see him all day. I want to wait until tonight when I become his wife. After all, I’ve loved him for a long time. I didn’t want us to get up and eat breakfast together as if it was just any other day. This day is special to me.”

“Well, I think that’s just about the most romantic thing I ever heard,” Mitzi said, her big blue eyes filling with tears.

“Don’t cry, Mitzi,” Patrice ordered. “Your eye makeup is perfect and you’ll ruin it.”

“Oh! Oh, gosh!” Mitzi began blinking so fast her eyelids were a blur. “And you paid for this professional makeup job. I’m sorry.” She took a quick look in the dresser mirror. “No damage done.”

Patrice’s cool gray eyes met Catherine’s gaze. Mitzi had been hired because she was the daughter of one of Mrs. Eastman’s friends, but Catherine could already see she wouldn’t last long. Now Mitzi was in the “honeymoon phase” with Patrice, whom she admired almost to the point of worship. “It’s embarrassing,” Patrice had told Catherine, “but it’s also sweet. Of course, in two more months she’ll think I’m a bitch, just like the rest of the staff does because I’m impatient and sharp-tongued, and intolerant of mistakes. For now, though, I’m her ideal. She’s asked so many questions about the wedding, I’ve decided to let her participate. She’ll stand at the guest book, beaming at everyone coming into the wedding. The guests will think she’s adorable, and she’ll think I’ve entrusted her with an important duty when Marissa’s dog could probably handle the job just as well. Do you think I’m awful?”

“I think you’re being extremely considerate,” Catherine had answered. “Even if later Mitzi decides she doesn’t like you, she’ll always remember your wedding as one of her big nights.”

“Well, I just think it’s an awful shame that you and Mr. Blakethorne don’t get to go on a honeymoon,” Mitzi now continued, still inspecting her eye makeup. “Honeymoons are supposed to come right after the wedding, not weeks later. It’s just so sad—”

“Don’t start crying again, Mitzi. Lawrence has business to take care of now, but in two weeks we’ll be walking on the Champs-Élysées,” Patrice said gaily. “Think of it—the specialty shops, the cafés, the cinemas…”

Mitzi clapped her hands. “Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there!”

“I know Lawrence needs to talk to the people at Star Air before the deal is sealed in mid-December, but hasn’t he heard of telephones?” Catherine asked, smiling. “Business can be discussed over the phone.”

“Oh, he doesn’t trust foreign operators to get United States phone numbers correct,” Patrice said airily.

He should get together with Mrs. Tate, who doesn’t eat “foreign” food, Catherine thought. “Can’t he take his cell phone? That way he’d be making the call himself.”

“Oh, he’s always losing cell phones. So is Ian, only he’s even worse. Honestly, between the two of them, they must spend three or four thousand dollars a year just on cell phones.” Dressed in a long slip, she whirled around to Catherine. “Want to help me put on my wedding dress, Maid of Honor?”

Catherine slipped the ivory silk gown off the padded hanger, holding it high while the other women in the room gasped as if they’d never seen anything so beautiful. Actually, Catherine thought Patrice had made a wise decision to wear a relatively simple gown without frills and ruffles and a long train. “I’m forty, not twenty-five,” she’d told Catherine at least ten times. “I don’t want people to think I’m trying to look at least ten years younger than I am. Women who do that are just pathetic!”

Patrice stood almost inhumanly still in front of a cheval mirror as Catherine slid the sheath gown over her tall, slender body. A layer of lace formed a jewel neckline and cap sleeves above the ruched silk bodice, the lace highlighted with a delicate sprinkling of rhinestones. At Patrice’s neck a narrow diamond necklace sparkled, matching the diamond tennis bracelet shimmering on her wrist and one-carat, radiant-cut stud earrings—Lawrence’s wedding gift to his new wife. In order to show off the earrings, Patrice wore her blond hair upswept with only a few ringlets left to dangle strategically on her neck.

“You look beautiful!” the two women cried simultaneously.

“The gown is lovely—I really like the way the hem dips lower in back than in front so you have the illusion of a train. The dress is just perfect for your figure. Lawrence will love it, just as he loves you,” Catherine said.

“You don’t think I need a veil?”

“The silk rose clips match the real roses in your bouquet.”

Patrice held up the beautiful cascade of ivory roses and small ivory accent flowers entwined with English ivy. “Not too long?”

“Okay, Patrice, quit soliciting compliments.” Catherine laughed. “You know you look wonderful.”

Patrice’s smile wavered slightly. “When Lawrence married my sister Abigail, she was so young, so beautiful. She looked like the women you see on the cover of bridal magazines.”

“The airbrushed models you see on the cover of bridal magazines,” Catherine corrected. “Real women don’t look like them. Besides, I’ve seen wedding pictures of Abigail and Lawrence. Abigail was pretty, Patrice, but she wasn’t beautiful. Your mother never stopped talking about how gorgeous she was—how much prettier than you—and you started believing her. She brainwashed you into thinking you weren’t a match for Abigail in any way, including looks.” Patrice gave Catherine a long look, her light, silvery eyes narrowing. “Don’t get mad. You just got half an hour’s worth of therapy for free.”

The room quieted, the other women tensing as if afraid Patrice was going to leap on Catherine. Then Patrice laughed. “Thank you, Dr. Gray. You know how I love a bargain.” She paused. “And maybe Abigail wasn’t quite as lovely as Mother always said.”

“You really do look beautiful, Patrice.” Everyone in the room looked at Beth Harper. For years, she had worked at Eastman and Greenlee as a legal secretary. After she’d married, she’d taken the less time-consuming position as secretary for Dr. Hite—and now Catherine—at the Aurora Falls Center. The job provided a nice salary—although less than Beth had earned at Eastman and Greenlee—but required around five hours fewer a week and no overtime.

Two weeks before the wedding, Beth told Catherine that Patrice had asked if she would sing. “I’ve barely seen Patrice for over a year and didn’t guess she remembered that I do sing at some local events.” Beth had shaken her head. “That’s Patrice for you, though. You think she doesn’t know you’re alive and suddenly she appears back in your life knowing everything you’ve done and everything you’re doing now.”

“Did you agree to sing?” Catherine had asked.

“Of course. She wants me to do ‘We’ve Only Just Begun.’”

“The song the Carpenters did?”

“Yes. And fortunately, one I’ve sung before. I won’t need much practice.” Beth had looked slightly dubious. “Actually, I don’t think it’s the right song for Patrice and Mr. Blakethorne. It seems like a song for a young couple’s wedding.”

“I agree,” Catherine said. “Oh lord, please say you didn’t tell her what you think.”

“I’m not in the hospital with a concussion, am I?” Beth and Catherine had broken into giggles. “I’d never imply that something else might be more appropriate, especially to her. Besides, she told me that when she was fourteen she decided she wanted that song sung at her wedding, so just because she had to wait awhile on the wedding doesn’t mean I’m going to take the joy out of it for her.”

Now, Beth smiled, then said, “You look beautiful, Catherine.”

Catherine inspected herself in the cheval mirror. Her sheath gown with its short sleeves and unadorned square neckline was far from an attention grabber. Patrice had selected it. When Catherine got it home, she put it on, looking at it critically in her full-length mirror as she modeled it for her sister.

“Well? What do you think?”

Marissa, nearly always blunt, had commented, “It borders on plain, Catherine.”

“It fits well. The lines are nice—classic,” Catherine had offered halfheartedly.

“True.” Marissa had frowned, her gaze traveling over the gown as if she were looking for a tiny flaw in a gem. “I think Patrice meant to cast you into the shadows, but with the right makeup and accessories, you’ll be stunning.”

“But it’s her day.”

“Hey, Sis, she chose the dress. Is it my fault a few changes can make you look more than just acceptably attractive?”

“Marissa, are you planning something?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be subtle as always.”

“‘Subtle’ is not a word I’d ever apply to you!” Catherine had called after Marissa as she left the bedroom.

Now Catherine stood in front of the pier-glass mirror, looking at herself wearily, glad James wasn’t here to see her looking just “acceptably attractive” in the pretty dress and the sweet, small silver locket and tiny stud earrings Patrice had given her to wear as her only accessories. She didn’t want to outshine the bride, but she’d hoped to look a bit more striking.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door and then opened it before anyone had time to say a word. Catherine’s eyes brightened when Marissa whisked through the doorway, full of smiles and giggles and exaggerated movements, all of which Catherine recognized as tactics to divert Patrice’s attention.

“I’m sorry to burst in uninvited,” Marissa said loudly, although nearly everyone was already exclaiming over her rose-colored sleeveless dress with a deep-cut crossover neckline. Catherine was glad Eric had been able to accompany her sister to the wedding to see how beautiful she looked. “Patrice, I just thought about this today,” Marissa raced on. “I know you picked that lovely locket for Catherine, but I remembered a set of jewelry we have that would be spectacular with that elegant dress you chose. Marissa flipped open a black, felt-covered box to reveal a silver chain from which dangled six teardrop-shaped, filigreed charms, along with a matching set of dangle earrings. “Don’t you think this would be just stunning with the dress?”

Patrice neared, looking at the high-polished jewelry glittering against the black background. “Well, it wasn’t really what I’d pictured.…”

Marissa’s wide smile trembled a bit. “I know, but this set was our mother’s—you know she just passed away less than a year ago—and she always thought it would look lovely on Catherine. I thought if it suited Catherine and of course was all right with you, Patrice, my sister might wear it tonight?”

Marissa should have been an actress, Catherine thought, trying not to smile as she realized Marissa had remembered the silver filigree jewelry set days ago. She’s been planning this all along, having sense enough not to mention it to me because I might have asked Patrice about substituting it for the locket and Patrice would have probably said no. Now here’s Mitzi, already unfastening the locket and reaching for the filigree necklace to try on “just to see how it looks.”

Twenty minutes later, Catherine walked slowly down the aisle, knowing the soft church lighting picked up the glow of the silver jewelry and heightened the silvery sheen of the gown.

For the reception, Lawrence had booked the largest dining room of the Larke Inn, the one with sliding walls that could be opened to expose a smaller dining area, making one large venue. Patrice, in charge of decorating for the reception, had chosen white with accents of the same darkly vivid steel blue that covered the walls of Lawrence’s office. “It’s his favorite color!” she announced when some of the guests—obviously expecting pink—gasped at the sharp color contrast. “Blue for the sky!”

“That’d be one helluva blue sky!” someone exclaimed, eliciting laughter and a guffaw from Lawrence, who answered, “When I’m behind the wheel of a plane, the sky turns this color from pure joy!”

Catherine caught sight of Marissa, diligently taking pictures with and talking into her cell phone, no doubt preparing material for the article covering the wedding that would appear in Monday’s Gazette. She knew the article had been assigned to a reporter whose work experience consisted of three months on the weekly five-page bulletin of a tiny town forty miles away. “The editor doesn’t like her and wants to give himself an excuse to get rid of her. Messing up coverage of a wedding as important as this one will do the trick, but I’m not going to let him get away with it. The poor girl just needs a little more experience.”

“And an undercover agent with a top-notch cell phone to help her,” Catherine had said, as usual touched by the deep, quiet kindness and altruism she so often saw in the Marissa other people thought was too brash and self-absorbed. “Good luck, Mrs. Bond.”

“You don’t need luck when you have skill,” Marissa returned.

“Missing James tonight?” Eric asked as he turned away from a man Catherine quickly recognized as the mayor.

“Oh, Eric, I didn’t even see you! Yes, I miss James. I just called him and told him the wedding went off without a hitch.”

“Now we have the reception to get through.” Eric leaned toward her and lowered his voice. “Jeff is here. He, Marissa, and I will be watching you all evening. Please don’t wander out of this room—we’re your protection.”

All through the wedding, Catherine had been telling herself she wasn’t nervous or uneasy. Hearing Eric reassure her that she was under so much surveillance, though, made her muscles immediately relax a notch. James had been right—coming tonight had been taking a risk. Still, she knew she couldn’t hide indefinitely. She had to dig up the courage to face the world. Thank God she had help, though.

“Thank you, Eric.” She smiled. “I promise to behave myself tonight and not try to dodge you and Jeff.”

Eric pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead. “Well, that’s a relief.”

Catherine looked around the large room where a band played “I Will Always Love You.” She saw Ian dancing with Robbie, whom she hardly recognized in a dark and light blue satin dress with a crossover halter neck. She’d let down her heavy brown hair to hang in tousled ringlets pulled toward the right and exposing most of her taut, smooth back. Catherine had never seen her look so glamorous, and from the look in Ian’s eyes as he gazed fixedly at Robbie neither had he.

Catherine drank a glass of champagne. She hated champagne, but she didn’t want to seem rude when an eager and obviously inexperienced young waiter offered it to her, a man she recognized as a headwaiter looking on. She danced once with Eric while Marissa was off inconspicuously conversing with the photographer from the Gazette. “She thinks the editor gave him bad advice about what pictures to take,” Eric told Catherine. “She’s setting him straight.”

“I wasn’t aware she knew so much about photography.”

Eric grinned. “She doesn’t. She’s determined to help out that new girl on staff, though. Don’t worry—the photographer knows what he’s doing. He’ll pretend to do what she’s telling him, and then do what he pleases. The pictures will turn out great.” He paused. “She’s also taking pictures of all the guests to help us with the case, you know. If the killer is here, at least she’ll probably get a photo of him.”

If the killer is here. The phrase tolled in Catherine’s head. What if he was here? What if James had been right and the murderer had merely spared her earlier because he wanted to kill her later? What if—

As soon as the dance ended, Catherine turned and stumbled into the grip of a thrice-married local lothario. He immediately swept her away from Eric and launched into a speech about her grace, her beauty, how when she’d “floated” down the aisle she’d nearly taken away his breath. I wish I had taken it away, she thought, then felt a flicker of shame. Only a flicker. Some men should know when to give up or at least get new seduction material. He’d probably been using the same tired lines for forty years.

Nearby, Patrice held tightly to Lawrence’s arm as he talked to a couple Catherine didn’t recognize. While Lawrence’s attention was fastened on the man, who tended to speak using grand gestures to illustrate his meanings, Patrice rarely stopped beaming at her groom. She’s loved him so much for so long, Catherine thought. I wonder if when he married Abigail she felt like I did when James married Renée.

Renée. Why did her image always flash in front of her at what should be the happiest times? Catherine thought in annoyance. What if she were here tonight? She certainly wouldn’t let Patrice shine—she’d try to steal all the attention for herself, no matter what means it took. Poor James. How he must have dreaded attending occasions such as this one with her.

Would he have enjoyed it with me? Catherine wondered, suddenly missing him so much she knew she had to talk to him. Soon. She automatically reached for her cell phone and realized she didn’t even have a clutch purse with her. She’d left it upstairs and she’d told Eric she wouldn’t leave the main room. She couldn’t go get it.

She looked around for Marissa. She’d memorized the number of the landline phone beside James’s hospital bed. If his cell wasn’t close by, answering the phone wouldn’t entail his fumbling around looking for it. But Catherine didn’t see Marissa. She didn’t see Eric, either. However, she did see Robbie dancing with Lawrence while Ian watched.

She walked toward Ian. “Do you happen to have your cell phone with you?”

“My cell phone?” He frowned. “Honestly, I’ve heard about adolescent girls who can’t stop calling and texting every ten minutes, but I thought someone your age might have outgrown the compulsion.”

“Well, you were wrong. Actually, I just got an urge to call James and I left my cell phone upstairs. Or I forgot it. Or I lost it.”

“Lost it? According to Marissa, you’re the most organized person in the world. I never thought you lost anything.”

“Marissa tends to exaggerate my strong points.”

“I wish not losing my cell phone was one of mine. I think I should tie mine onto my wrist.”

“I’m sure you’re not that absentminded.”

“You’d be surprised.” Ian smiled at her. Then, slowly, his smile faded and his gaze grew slightly distant. He looked toward the band, playing a fervent version of U2’s “Beautiful Day,” and his inner presence seemed to drift away from them. Catherine turned and followed his line of vision to his father, whose flushed face grimaced as he tried to swing Robbie in a smooth turn and almost fell. With Robbie’s help, he caught himself, and she guided him sideways, slowing the pace, subtly helping him find his center again.

“Dad had better get control of himself,” Ian mumbled. “Patrice won’t like it if he falls down in the middle of the dance floor while he’s dancing with my pretty young date.”

That’s an understatement, Catherine thought as she saw Patrice, watching with her laser eyes, from the sidelines. She immediately started talking and laughing with the woman beside her, as if taking the scene in stride, but Catherine could tell Patrice was inwardly angry, maybe even worse.

“I don’t think too many people noticed,” Catherine said softly to Ian. “I guess he’s not used to champagne.”

“He drinks a lot and you know it.”

“But champagne might have a different effect.” The only way out of this one seemed to be a change of subject. “Anyway, naturally all of this romantic stuff makes me think of my guy and I wanted to give him a call to say good night, but I can’t find my cell phone, so if you have yours, I’d appreciate—”

Someone bumped into Catherine so hard she would have fallen if Ian hadn’t reached out to catch her. While she was still trying to regain her balance, she heard a man’s voice: “Well, I can’t turn around without running into a pretty girl!”

Catherine stiffened as Lawrence boomed the comment loud enough for one whole area of the room to hear. People turned to see what drunken lout was making such a commotion, saw it was the groom and their host, and quickly looked away.

Lawrence nearly pushed Robbie toward Ian, who caught her gently, then wrapped a protective arm around her waist. “God, I’m sorry, Robbie—”

“Know what you saw in her now, boy. A real good-looker. Definitely put her name in that little black book you keep locked away in your apartment.” Lawrence looked conspiratorially at Robbie. “He never lets anyone in his apartment, but with your skills as a cop, I’m sure you could pull off a break-in without getting caught.” His right arm snaked around Catherine’s waist. “How about a dance, Maid of Honor?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Lawrence. I was just about to call James—”

“That stick-in-the-mud? He can’t hold a candle to me.” He winked. “And I don’t mean just on the dance floor.”

Oh God, what should I do now? Catherine thought, horrified, when she suddenly felt trembling in the arm Lawrence had wrapped around her waist—a deep trembling that might not even be noticeable on the surface. Alarm shot through her just as Ian, anger in his blue eyes, reached roughly for his father. But as his hand clamped on Lawrence’s arm Catherine caught Ian’s gaze and quickly shook her head “no.”

Ian, not letting go of his father’s arm in spite of Lawrence’s protests, leaned close to Catherine.

“He’s not drunk,” she murmured. Ian looked at her in disbelief. “He may have had too much to drink, but I don’t think that’s all that’s wrong. Don’t make a fuss—just make him sit down. I’ll get Patrice.”

“But Catherine—”

“Just get him off his feet,” she hissed, headed toward Patrice, who’d turned her very straight back to the scene.

And that’s when Catherine saw him.

The tall, slender man stood with a natural elegance near one of the huge windowed walls overlooking the Aurora waterfall, two fingers of his left hand pressed against the glass as if he could reach through it and touch the water, his slender, high-cheekboned face directed at hers. When she looked at him, he made no attempt to glance away, as would most men simply looking at a pretty young woman. Instead, he openly stared, his expression seemingly meant to grip her attention, almost as if she owed it to acknowledge him.

A tiny thrill of tension ran through Catherine. Although she did not know this man, she couldn’t look away. She felt as if he was studying her, measuring her not in a sexual way but almost as he would an adversary. A small, tight smile curved his narrow lips and she suddenly felt a touch of danger in that slightly scornful smile. Still, she could not look away from him. The relatively smooth, pale skin of his face and the mere dusting of silver in his obviously natural thick, black hair told her he was in his late fifties, possibly in his early sixties. His large dark eyes, though, were sunken in hollows and surrounded by deep lines. Grief, Catherine thought. This handsome, genteel-looking man could have been a nineteenth-century aristocrat, somehow dropped into the wrong time and place, yet somehow looking recognizable to her, somehow …

A hot, humid day sweet with the smell of white flowers. A wedding. Champagne. A beautiful raven-haired bride in white—a bride with knowing, amused eyes smiling triumphantly, mockingly into hers.

Catherine turned and stumbled away, desperately looking for Eric.

2

Dana opened heavy eyes and looked at the digital bedside clock. One twenty-four. It had been a long day and she had gone to bed around eleven thirty, exhausted. Yet here she lay, wide awake, less than two hours later.

Without turning her head, she slid a hand across the ivory silk sheet. No Ken in the king-size bed. The down pillow didn’t bear the slightest depression of a head and the upper sheet and blanket were still tucked beneath the mattress. Ken hadn’t yet come to bed.

Earlier this afternoon they had settled Mary in her yellow and white bedroom. Dana planned for the nurse, Ms. Greene, to stay in the guest room next to Mary’s, but the woman insisted on sleeping in Mary’s room. Luckily, the Nordines owned a twin rollaway bed and, although Dana knew it wasn’t comfortable, the nurse had pronounced it perfect and immediately set about making it up, demonstrating to Mary how to do a “hospital corner” with the top sheet. Ms. Greene had then unpacked her small suitcase and finally placed her bag of medical equipment in a corner far away from Mary’s bed.

Shortly afterward, the nurse had listened with seeming fascination as Mary introduced her seven stuffed animals (a different one to sleep with every night—nobody should be left out). They’d then played a computer game, eaten from trays in Mary’s bedroom, pretending they were having room service in a fancy hotel, and watched a couple of hours of television before the child agreed she’d “try” to sleep. When Dana had last checked on them at nine o’clock, Mary looked blissfully asleep. Ms. Greene sat in a comfortable rocking chair in the corner, reading in the glow of a Tiffany lamp, the chair and lamp Dana had insisted be moved into the room for the nurse’s comfort.

“Murder mystery,” Ms. Greene had whispered, tucking away a paperback book when Dana peeked into the bedroom. I’m addicted to them—can’t sleep unless I’ve read a few pages.”

“I used to read them incessantly, too. I can’t remember when I stopped. I might start again, though. This week in Aurora Falls has certainly sparked my interest in the subject again.”

“Terrible. Just terrible, what’s gone on around here.” Ms. Greene shook her head and made a sound like a chicken’s cluck. Then she glanced over at the lamp. “I’m stealing this when I leave.”

“It is pretty.”

“Pretty? It’s the most beautiful lamp I’ve ever seen. I’ve always admired Tiffany lamps. Couldn’t afford one, of course, but if I had one, I’d probably wrap it in yards of tissue paper and hide it away so it wouldn’t get broken. And what fun would that be?” She’d grinned, her prominent teeth gleaming in the light. “You’ve made me very comfortable and Mary is doing wonderfully.”

“I’m glad on both counts.”

As Dana had begun to withdraw and shut the door, the nurse had said, “Mrs. Nordine?”

“Dana.”

“Okay. Dana. I just wanted to tell you, Dana, you’re one of the best mothers I’ve ever seen. The other nurses at the hospital have commented on it. Mary adores you. She loves her father, but you are Mommy, the one she knows will always protect her.”

Dana’s throat tightened and she felt tears in her eyes. She couldn’t even manage a “thank you.” She’d just shut the door, leaned again the wall, and let the tears flow. Her? A good mother? The idea stunned her. She hadn’t been a good mother in the past, but she would be from now on, she silently vowed. She would be.

Dana trailed slowly down the circular steps from the fourth-floor living quarters to the main floor of the gallery. Between moonlight and the streetlights, she didn’t have to turn on the gallery lights. Instead, she wandered around, looking almost blindly at paintings she’d seen every day for months. She did pull up short when she saw the discreet Sold sign on Mardi Gras Lady and wondered briefly who had bought it. She really didn’t care, though. She just wanted the piece out of here.

Dana went into the kitchenette off the main gallery and fixed a cup of hot chocolate. When she began touring the lower floor for the second time, she realized she hadn’t put on her slippers, but the cool tiles felt good on her narrow feet, especially as she sipped the warm drink. She walked to the front windows and looked out on Foster Street.

They had gotten Mary home by two o’clock with Ken grouching about having to delay the daily gallery opening for over an hour when Dana and the nurse could have gotten Mary home just fine by themselves. Dana had ignored him, Mary’s good spirits had sunk into quiet conversation with Ms. Greene, and the nurse’s lips had narrowed with barely concealed dislike whenever she caught sight of Ken.

For the rest of the afternoon, Dana and Ms. Greene tended to Mary. Gallery traffic had been light, which frustrated Ken but Dana had found to be lucky. She wasn’t called upon to act cordial and give her memorized spiels about the artwork, and Ken couldn’t conjure up his usual charm. Instead, he had paced, made phone calls, complained constantly, lost his temper over a ten-minute electric failure, and paid only minimal attention to Mary.

As Dana now stood at the front window, she saw their black Mercedes Cabriolet with Ken behind the wheel. He was headed south—south, toward Bridget’s house. Less than twelve hours after his daughter had been brought home from the hospital, he was going in search of Renée’s replacement, the woman Dana knew he planned to leave her for, the woman he thought would give him a son along with endless hours of passion in the bedroom.

Dana smiled slightly, sardonically, almost cruelly. He could spend the whole night driving, calling, searching, pining.

She didn’t care. And neither would Bridget.