Ch. 1: A Stranger in the Rain

Rain traced long silver lines down the window, and somewhere a clock counted the hours.

There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to.

Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered.

There are moments that divide a life into before and after. This was becoming one of them.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all.

She did not sleep that night. There was too much to lose, and far too much to want.