LOGINXena.“Did he know?” Dante demanded, his finger still pressed to the faded signature on the page. “Did my father know whose key he handed you?”Margaret closed the ledger gently over his finger and drew it back onto her own lap.“I never asked him,” she answered, her voice level. “He never told me. The next week, Gerald moved Richard to an office on another floor, and the gray sedan was sold before the month was out.”Dante stood up so fast that his knee knocked the tea tray. Cups rattled on their saucers, and a thin stream of tea ran across the polished wood toward the edge.Ruth half rose from her chair by the door. Voss’s hand went flat on her portfolio.“Fifty-two years,” Dante shouted, jabbing a finger toward the ledger. “You sat on this for fifty-two years. You let Cassandra think it was Gerald. You let my father walk around and raise a family and sit at the head of the table every Christmas.”“Yes,” Margaret replied, without lowering her eyes. “I did all of that.”“Dante.” I st
Xena"You've grown into your face, Mrs. Cross," the old woman remarked, holding the door open with one thin hand. "At your wedding, you still looked surprised to be there."I stood on her porch with Dante beside me, and for a second I couldn't answer her. She was small and very straight, with white hair pinned up exactly as I remembered it from the edge of that dance floor. A gold watch hung loose on her wrist."Mrs. Cross," I answered, swallowing first. "Margaret.""Margaret will do." Her eyes moved to Dante and stayed on him a beat longer than they had on me. "And you're Richard's boy. You have his jaw."Dante kept his face still, though a muscle flickered once along his jaw."She knew my father," he breathed, so low that only I could hear him as Margaret turned away from the door.I leaned my shoulder into his arm."I'm Dante," he replied evenly. "We're here because you asked to see my wife.""I asked to see your wife," she agreed, stepping back from the door. "I'm glad you came an
Xena"Don't say another word to her, Xena," Okafor hissed, gripping my arm above the elbow. "Save it for when we're somewhere she can't hear you."My hand was still pressed over my mouth. I lowered it and nodded, heat climbing up the side of my neck under the afternoon sun.Voss waited with her head tilted until we finished. Then she slid a cream-colored envelope out of her portfolio and held it out to Okafor, who took it between two fingers."My client would like to meet Mrs. Cross in person before the thirteenth," she explained, already turning to go. "Her address and telephone number are inside. She asked me to say she'll be home all day tomorrow."She went down the steps without looking back. The coffee vendor followed her with his eyes until she climbed into a black car at the curb.I turned to Okafor. My legs had started to tremble, so I planted my feet on the stone."I'm sorry," I blurted, my hands fluttering uselessly at my sides. "I wasn't thinking. She said Margaret's name,
Xena“The key,” Okafor whispered beside me, gripping my wrist hard enough to leave marks. “Xena, nobody in this room said the word key.”I turned to stare at him. His face was close to mine, his glasses sliding down his nose, while Pell sat back down at the side table.At the front of the room, the chair lowered her pen. She conferred with the two men in murmurs I couldn’t hear, her hand covering the microphone in front of her. Dante sat rigid at his table with his palms pressed flat against the wood.When the chair looked up again, she spoke directly to him.“Mr. Cross, this board was prepared to rule today,” she announced, folding her hands on top of her notes. “Given this complaint, we can’t. Our decision is deferred until bar counsel completes a review. We’ll reconvene in fourteen days.”Dante’s shoulders dropped an inch, and he kept his eyes on the table.“I understand, Madam Chair,” he answered, every word clipped short. “Thank you for your time.”“For what it’s worth,” she adde
Xena.“Fix my tie,” Dante muttered, stopping me in the hallway outside the hearing room. “Please. I’ve tied it four times, and it still looks like I did it in the dark.”I reached up and loosened the knot. His collar was damp under my fingers, and I could feel his pulse jumping against my knuckles while I worked. Down the corridor, a clerk with a cart of file boxes rolled past without looking at us.“It’s straight now,” I told him, smoothing the silk flat against his shirt. “Herald would approve.”A short laugh escaped him. He caught my hand before I could lower it and pressed it flat over his heart while he breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth.“First row,” he reminded me under his breath.“First row,” I promised. “I’m not going anywhere.”Footsteps came up the corridor behind us. Okafor hurried toward us with his b
Xena“Get out of my way,” Foster growled, his face blotched red. “I’m taking it to the police myself. Right now. My mother can hate me for it after.”“Which station are you going to, and which officer?” Dante asked, standing his ground. “If you walk in off the street and hand that key to whoever’s at the front desk, there’s no record of where it came from. Any defense lawyer will get it thrown out before a jury ever sees it.”“Then let them throw it out!” Foster shouted. The man in the wheelchair turned his head toward us. “My brother’s been dead for fifty-two years, and the police never questioned a single person!”I took two steps toward them with my hands raised, unsure which of them I meant to calm. Behind me, I heard the soft hiss of the room door again, and I turned around.Cassandra stood in the doorway of 412, gripping the frame with one hand and
Xena. Was Hannah drunk?I stood there waiting for the punchline. April Fools was months away but maybe someone had lost track of the calendar. Maybe this was some elaborate Yale family bit that I hadn't been briefed on. Maybe —Adrian crossed the room to stand beside her."It's true." He turned to
Xena.I gasped for breath, my legs still aching from the last round. Yet Dante stood over me like this was nothing but probably another of his one night stands.The bed was wet beneath me, wet from my juices. I stared at the ceiling for a while, the memories of his cock inside of me played over an
Xena.The ceiling in Dante's room was different from the one in the guest room.I noticed that first, which probably said something about the state of my brain. I stared at it and waited for regret to arrive.It didn't.What arrived instead was a very thorough physical awareness of every decision
Xena.The night air hit me the moment we stepped outside and I realized it was the first clean breath I'd taken in hours.Dante's car was already waiting. The long black car didn't need a logo to tell one it cost fortunes. A driver stood at the rear door without being summoned and I got in without







