Chapter 1

The firm held a celebration at a downtown hotel on the day our merger officially closed.

I rarely wore anything except suits to company events, so one of my colleagues smiled when I sat down.

“Claire Bennett in a dress. You finally look as if you are not about to enter a negotiation.”

I was about to answer when voices rose near the entrance.

Mara stood in the doorway wearing white. Her face was pale, and a loose bandage circled one wrist. The cut looked shallow, although enough blood had reached her fingers and sleeve to draw everyone’s attention.

Her eyes found me, and tears began to fall.

“You must think I am pathetic, Claire. You finished another major deal, and everyone says you are about to be promoted. The rest of you keep moving forward. I am still trapped on the day Daniel died.”

The room fell quiet.

Adrian rose from the head table and crossed the room. A server brought a first aid kit, and he guided Mara into a chair before checking her wrist.

“Look at me,” he said gently. “Let me take care of the cut.”

“I cannot keep doing this.” Mara caught the front of his shirt. “I do not know how to live without him.”

Once Adrian was certain the injury was not dangerous, he asked me to join him in the corridor.

Through the glass doors, I could still see Mara crying.

“I want Mara to lead the final presentation for the Hartwell acquisition,” he said.

For a moment, I thought I had misunderstood him.

“I have spent eight months leading that project.”

I had handled the due diligence, valuation, and risk negotiations. The presentation would also determine whether the executive committee approved my promotion.

“I know. Mara needs a real chance to return to work. She has had no direction since Daniel died. This could help her regain some confidence.”

“What happens to the work I have already done?”

Guilt crossed his face.

“I will owe you.”

I used to understand why he struggled to refuse her.

Before Daniel died, he took Adrian’s hand and asked him to look after Mara. Adrian gave his word. Over time, that promise became the answer to every problem in our home.

When Mara moved into our apartment, she said the sound of a keyboard reminded her of hospital equipment. I started taking my laptop to the coffee shop downstairs whenever I worked late.

The smell of spicy food made her ill, so the meals I liked disappeared from our kitchen.

Then she stood beside the south-facing windows in our bedroom and cried.

“There is sunlight in here every morning. Daniel will never see another morning, but Claire gets to wake up in the light every day. She is so lucky.”

That evening, Adrian asked me to move into the study.

I watched him remove my clothes from the bedroom closet. “If the windows upset her, why can she not sleep in the study?”

He rubbed his forehead. “She just lost her husband. You cannot expect her to respond rationally. Please do not turn a bedroom into another problem.”

The study barely held a folding bed. I kept the lamp dim because bright light woke Mara, and I often struck my elbow against the desk when I turned over.

Mara was allowed to fall apart and ask for whatever eased her pain. Adrian expected me to remain composed because he believed I was stronger.

Now he stood in the hotel corridor, waiting for my answer.

I looked at the wrinkles Mara’s hand had left in his shirt. I lacked the energy to explain what he was asking me to lose.

“All right.”

Relief passed over his face.

“I know this is unfair. I will make it up to you once she is stable.”

I did not ask how.

The celebration ended early, and we returned to the apartment. That night, Mara woke from another nightmare. She said she had seen Daniel and heard him accuse her of failing to live the life he wanted for her.

Adrian remained outside her room while she cried. At three in the morning, he knocked on the study door.

I was sitting on the folding bed with an email from the New York headquarters open on my laptop.

He never looked at the screen.

“Mara is still in a bad state. I am going to stay with her until she falls asleep.”

“Go ahead.”

His brow tightened. He seemed to hear resentment in my answer.

“Claire, I promised Daniel I would take care of her. She has no one else.”

“I know.”

My calm response made him study me for several seconds.

“We will talk tomorrow, after things settle down.”

He closed the door and returned to Mara.

I looked at the email again.

I had submitted my portfolio and completed three interviews for the New York position. Adrian had not helped me, and I had never told him I was applying. If he knew, the opportunity might somehow become one more thing Mara needed in order to start over.

The final line read, “Please report to the New York headquarters by the thirteenth of next month.”

I clicked Accept and placed my passport, identification, and transfer documents inside my suitcase.

Adrian’s voice drifted through the wall as he comforted Mara.

I closed the suitcase. I would take the position in New York, and I would end my relationship with Adrian.