Boundless Love

tower was silent except for the hum of the

every fingerprint, which carpet tile always curled at the edge, and which executi

a long time, was that the tower had bee

she passed the elevator bank. He was sixty, silver-haired, and

laundromat shift early," Ella

inked. "There's cocoa in the loung

ell anyone

ter, "is why you

ouble doors at the end of the corridor. The brass plate bes

ors, the way you hesitate

oors, she told herself. T

who skipped meals to hide how little they had, and three weeks un

ed the d

, and a wall of framed magazine covers, every one of them showing the same smiling woman. Eden Ash

he bin. She wiped the desk. She was on her knees, scru

Look wh

ce. She had known it since she was five years

rned s

gne flute dangling from two fingers. Her dark hair fell in glossy w

been reassigned," Eden said, str

rd. I'll be out of you

You used to call me Eden. Back whe

a long t

edge. "Eighteen years? Nineteen? Funny how some things never change. The sc

bucket and went back to the stain, because argu

when I'm tal

looke

shade, the same stubborn tilt to the chin. If anyone had stood in the doorway just the

s there t

t back. Everyone else cries or begs or runs. You just kneel ther

g to be better

n tipped

ured onto t

aking into the fibers Ella had just

said. "Cle

the stain. Her hands, wet and red to t

he wants me to quit. I

ed up th

" she said evenly,

hing that looked almost like confusion, and then it was

he snapped. "

n she finally straightened, her knees ached and her fingers were

uietly. "I'll check

ai

ped at t

lips curled. "Tomorrow night, there's a gala. The whole city wi

atulat

and walked slowly around the desk, one hand pressed to her chest

Eden married. She hoped, in a distant, g

hitmore,"

r seemed

stone in still water, and the ripples ran all the way back to a rubber-floored playground, a

li

did. She had always been ab

ed, delighted. "

ame out thin. "I have

en's smile widened, slow and sharp. "He's going

le of her cart until

aid, and her voice did not

he did not see the way Eden's smile slipped the moment the doors swung shut, or the way her hand

corridor, Ella sto

out there, in a plane or a car or a quiet hotel room, a man she had once loved

d opened in twenty-five years, a hospital wristband marked E.A. la

er forehead to

ed to herself. "Don'

ver once asked