ir'

rst-class cabin and walked

le cabin sank into

carefully rehearsed innocence floated after me: "It's all

ed footsteps slammed a

, his chest heaving as though he had just run a marathon. He seized my wris

ston." I did not

ehind his eyes a storm was breaking-arroga

my bare hands. Tell me you're only going to the terminal. Tell me that if I apologize, you'll

some faint ghost of us at twenty surfaced-the boy who used to wake screaming from nightmares in

or half a second, that familiar p

on opened

ords, his voice gone hoarse and ugly with mockery. "You came to me with one chea

f warmth left in my

y-seven perfectly cut diamonds, its platinum chain fine and deli

s hands had shaken so badly that it took him three tries to close the clasp. That morning, over and over, he had pray

using that same bracelet-the one that carried al

tanding in the aisle, twisting a napkin between her hands. "If she wants t

re locked on my face-challenging me, certain I would

ice hard as stone. "You're not tak

I gave it to you with my whole heart. Remind me of our

found the clasp with the ease of long habit-a motion

e platinum still warm from my skin.

I said

mask shattered, twisting into something grotesque-grief and horror in the same expres

n, my voice without a ripple.

t around the bracelet;

e tears spilling from the corners of his eyes. He whipped around, grabbed Arianna's wrist as she came out after him, and snappe

s with elaborately feigned astonishment. They th

u don't have a single thing left from our wedding. Go on! Get off the pla

woman with my own hands. Blair, please hit me. Scream at me. Don't look at me with those dead eyes. To

pen cabin door and snapped th

kept from six years of shared life, w

monds are taken, no amount of money can buy back the warmth of them against your skin; once

aston," I s

November wind of Teterboro came howling ac

ulled my collar tight, crossed the wide taxiway, passed thro

door of the G650 still stood open, and two ground crew were hauling the suit

a phone pressed to her ear, her face set like a slab of iron. The

stride. I pulled

he Seattle headquarters as an executive. He had no idea that the transfer papers were alrea