d. Her legal training demanded precision, and she clung to it like a lifeline-something she could control in a day that had spun violently out of her grasp. When the recorder

nd empty. The hours spent at the hospital, taking statements and building a case against her own husband, had been a temporary

ll, her body trembling. Aurelia's words echoed in

dless, subtle pressure from Graves's grandmother, Eleanor, the matriarch who saw Cleone as little more than a vessel for the next generati

. Nausea rose in her throat. Her body was finally rebelling against th

p one step at a time. Her head was pounding. Halfway up the sweeping curve, her heel, a de

the banist

alance gave way. She tumbled backward, a sickening lurch in the pit of

hite-hot explosion of pain shot through her left ankle, radiating up her

sh wave of agony from her leg and back sent her crashing back to the marble floor. She w

gged her body across the cold floor, her vision blurring at the edges. Her fingers, shaking

years of marriage, was to call her husband. Despite everythi

al, her thumb pressing down ha

eone? I'm busy." His voice was impatient, stra

roat, thick with pain. "I-I fell. Down the stairs.

him turn away from the phone, his voice dropping to that

self get stressed. It's not good for t

en bone. He was with her. He was comforting Aurelia about her phantom pregnancy whil

in. "Stop being dramatic, Cleone. I'm sure it's just a sprain

hun

ever heard. The finality of it, the absolute, bottomless cruelt

t ripped through her soul. He hadn't just chosen another woman. He had chosen to belie

mixing with the trickle of blood from a cut o

ck as she lost consciousness, the phone slipping fro