Chapter 1 - The Woman in the Ivory Coat
The woman turned toward the street, and I recognized my younger sister, Mara.
I hadn't spoken to her in thirteen months.
The last time we stood in the same room, she told me I would eventually regret choosing my husband over my family.
Now Eliam was holding her hand outside a building neither of them had ever mentioned.
He opened his laptop bag and handed her my white envelope.
I knew the handwriting because I had written three words across the front in blue ink.
FOR MARA ONLY.
Three months earlier, I had sealed the envelope and hidden it beneath the lining of an old suitcase.
Inside was a letter explaining why I had stopped trying to reconcile with her.
And there was a second page that could destroy my marriage.
I pressed my palm against the car window.
Mara opened the envelope, read the first line, and went perfectly still.
Then she glanced straight toward my car.
I ducked.
When I looked again, Eliam was guiding her back inside.
My phone rang.
His name appeared on the screen.
I answered without speaking.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said brightly.
“Still buried in meetings?” I asked.
“Unfortunately.”
Behind his voice I heard a door slam and Mara say, “You promised she wouldn't find out.”
Eliam covered his microphone, but not quickly enough.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“A client.”
I looked at the red-brick building.
“Then why did she sound like my sister?”
Silence.
The kind of silence that changes the temperature of a marriage.
“You're mistaken,” he finally said.
He ended the call.
I sat there with my hands shaking until a security guard crossed the parking lot and stopped beside my window.
He held a photograph of me.
“Mrs. Bennett?” he asked.
I had never told anyone at this building my name.
May you like
“The woman inside said you'd be coming.”
