LOGINCHAPTER 40.After hours of grinding through papers and numbers, Tatiana finally yawned. She stretched the muscles in her neck, which had started to feel stiff and uncomfortable. And the man named Rafael was truly perceptive. He noticed Tatiana's movement and immediately moved."Get some rest, Tatiana." Rafael stood, took a few folders out of Tatiana's hands, and smiled slightly when the girl finally looked up. "We'll continue this later."That sounded like a good idea. Tatiana nodded. "All right."The two of them agreed to pack the secret items back into the suitcase. And Tatiana looked at Rafael far more kindly today; she nodded and smiled in relief."Hey, thank you."One of Rafael's eyebrows went up. "Um... okay.""Okay?" Tatiana snorted, and one hand went up, pointing toward the door. "That's all you have to say after sitting in my room all day? Good night, Rafael. The door's over there, in case you forgot where it is."Rafael turned toward the door as if seeing it for the first ti
CHAPTER 39.The leaves kept falling. One caught in Rafael’s hair, a small red maple leaf, absurd against the black of it, and she found she couldn’t look at it without something in her chest doing a strange, painful thing. She looked at the stone instead. She looked at the date.Rafael had just said something huge, in the same simple way he said everything. He hadn’t dressed it up. He hadn’t asked for anything in return. He had only set it down in the cold air between them, like a stone placed on a table, and waited to see what she would do.And now Tatiana had no idea what to do with it.“I’ll tell you what I want,” Tatiana said at last. Her voice didn’t sound any better, but it carried a little more conviction. “Not here.”“Where?”“My bedroom,” She bent down, slowly, and brushed the red leaf off the granite with the side of her thumb. Then, because she couldn’t help herself, she straightened, reached up, and plucked the one from his hair, holding it between two fingers for a moment
CHAPTER 38.Oliver Kensington's car had barely cleared the gate when Rafael came down the corridor. He didn't need a cane anymore. It had been six weeks since he'd carried one, ever since the physiotherapist folded her arms in the middle of the gym, watched him walk the length of the room without faltering, and said, reluctantly, that he was being boring about it and she figured he could stop. His knee still ached on cold mornings. It would probably ache for the rest of his life. But this was so much better.The glass doors of the breakfast room were open. Claire was clearing Oliver's untouched plate with the face of a woman removing a dead mouse from a pantry. At the far end of the long table, his mother sat with her coffee and her toast, perfectly composed, and a glass of white wine that was now empty."You're drinking alcohol in the morning. Have you lost your mind, Mom?" said Rafael."I made a toast.""You really meant it.""That old man forced his way in, and I couldn't say anyth
CHAPTER 37.Three months later.In Arabella's time, the Kensington dining room had plain linen curtains and a table that sat twenty without ever looking over the top.But Clarisse had changed it in just a year. That woman's favorite curtains vanished. In their place hung heavy gold brocade, and above the table now blazed a chandelier that looked like a prize from a casino. Tonight it lit five people and a ridiculous amount of food that nobody touched.Oliver Kensington sat at the end of the table with his phone beside his plate, screen up, like a man waiting for a verdict."Thirteen Mondays," he said.Nobody answered."She said Monday. In front of half the board, on that damn lawn. We'll discuss the offer on Monday." He grabbed his glass, found it empty, and set it back down with a click. "It's been three months.""Maybe she's busy," said Ethan.Oliver's eldest sat on his right. He was tall, neat. He cut his steak into small, even squares."Busy?" Oliver laughed, short and ugly. "I've
CHAPTER 36The emergency room was dim and humming.The machines stood along the wall in a quiet row, blinking softly. A monitor traced a green line across a black screen, up and down, up and down, with a small, systematic electronic beat. A bag of clear fluid hung beside the bed. A smaller one hung next to it.Rafael stopped just inside the room and for a moment forgot how to breathe. She looked so small. He finally walked to the bed. His knee screamed with every step. He ignored it, just as he had ignored it on the grass of the golf course this morning, in the car, or on the cold tile outside the doors of the hospital rooms. His cane was still lying in the grass somewhere, forgotten. It felt very far away.There was a chair, but Rafael didn’t take it right away. He stood and looked at Tatiana’s hand lying on the sheet, small and pale and still, with the bruise from Matthew’s grip fading to yellow at her wrist.Then he sat, slowly, and held it in both of his hands. The hand felt colde
CHAPTER 35.The doctor came out at ten past six. Viviane already knew before the doors had finished swinging. She had sat across boardroom tables from men who were about to deliver bad news, and she recognized that walk. The slow, careful, overly gentle steps. The shoulders leaning slightly forward, as if into the wind.The doctor was a small woman in green scrubs, her hair already gray, looking worn down to the bone. Her mask hung at her neck. There was a dark spot on her cuff that she clearly had not yet noticed.Rafael was already on his feet before anyone else had moved.He swayed. Harris, who had returned from the lobby an hour ago and taken up a post beside the door like a man guarding a fortress, immediately caught his elbow. Claire rose as well. She picked up her canvas bag and held it against her chest with both hands, her face pale as paper. Viviane stood last. Her knees held firm.“Mr. Moreira?” said the doctor.“Yes.”“I’ve been looking after your wife.” The doctor glanced







