I stayed where I was, shivering in the wet clothes, and listened to the front door, then the car engine starting, then the sound of it pulling away until it faded completely into the night. That was the finality. No more footsteps. No more chance to call her back from the hallway.I slumped to the floor because my legs wouldn’t hold. The cry that came out of me didn’t sound like my own voice. The heartbreak sat heavier than anything I had carried after Claire. It was sharper, more complete, as if losing the woman I loved had cracked open every older failure at once. I had power, authority, wealth, connections, everything that should have been enough to keep her safe and close, and I still couldn’t hold her. This failure was different. It kept stabbing in the same place without dulling.“What’s the use of any of it,” I muttered into the empty room, forehead against the side of the bed, “if I can’t make her stay. I failed again. This time I did it with my o
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