ONE YEAR AS MRS KINGSLEY

, because going home meant ti

ng. He gave her a slice of lemon meringue in a paper bag, which she ate in the back of a black Merce

beard, and an earpiece, and he had opened her door and said, "Ms. Carter. Marcus Cole." When she said, "You've been parke

who was sorry. He apologized l

d on. Tessa had texted back a string of eleven emojis, nine of them knives. If you

y around, Isabella t

nd stone, the kind of Manhattan she saw only in the pocket of an overnight shift. At Fifty-Second Street the car slid to a stop before a lime

," Marcus said. "The

ou com

am. I'll

, and went

rty-eighth floor was the size

le of pale ash ran down the middle of the room. At the nearer end sat Gideon Marsh, who had changed from the overcoat into a dark suit and looked, if

is back to her, stood the

pocket and the other at his side, a charcoal suit with no tie and the collar of his white shirt open at the throat, and he did n

deon said. "Miss C

you,

warmth. It was not unkind. It was the voice of

tur

der and younger at the same time: dark hair cut short, a lean face that might have been carved by someone with a grudge, an

nd her face an

k, but the quality: not appraisal, not even curiosity. It was the careful, arrested stare of someone

and his expression

did not offer his

l st

feet since six o'cl

know when

lf into a chair, not because he had told her to, but because her feet hurt

t at its head. Up close he smelled faintly of cedar and

ld you the out

llion dollars and '

the outline." A

iral-bound, with a cream title page she did not look at. Alexander Kingsley to

small, clear click of recogn

what she

ment over and opene

with the words. They read the first paragraph, the definitions, the preamble about whereas and part of the first part, and by the time they reached the m

last three pages, a cl

MPENSATION AND

eat rows and her mind did what it always did with figures, picking them up and we

ay 90: $1,140,000. Day 180: $

added it twice, from top a

o the clause that governed the schedule, and found it

she f

finger moved to the sec

ing. His pen did not move. The steel watch glinted faint

ur point tw

Marsh

housand dollars." She tapped the page. "Schedule A says one million

be

o the body of the contract. And since Section 4.2 says the schedule is 'subordinate to the operative text in the event of conflict,' I'd argue it's the clause

d hear the rain on the window and the

he accurate one," he said, in the tone of a man composing an apology to a judge. "The clause is

s," said Alexa

down

e had not changed, but somethin

n times in six days." He turned the steel watch face-down against his wrist

," Isabella said. "Peo

. It was so small and so quickly suppressed t

aid. "Read

ck to the cre

NG MARRIAGE AND R

graph, and the second, and she felt the blood leave he

marriage, for the term of twelve consecutive

id, it was Gideon Marsh she looked at, because lo

ersonal natur

" said

nothing

is n

r voice cracked and she steadie

authorized to say." He did not look away. "Mr. K

tu

nreadable gray stillness, and he did not soften

a wife,"

e and bare and deliv

y. If I fail, a group of men I do not trust takes it from me." His voice remained level. "I do not have time to fall in love. I don't have the inclination. I need a wife for one year

assur

es

reass

uch," he said instead. "Accounting. You lef

ill. "You l

wo hundred and

sed to make m

her. You work two jobs. You have not taken a day off in fourteen months. You have no one to ask for

, in her damp sneakers and her diner T-shirt, with a p

e?" sh

uieter than s

she had the sharp, specific, unmistakable impression that he was

he schedule," Alexa

not an

nly one I h

two fingers on the cover of the gray document and slid it six in

dollars," he s

who had said it to himself

m, this cold, lean, impossible stranger in a nine-thousand-dollar suit, who had jus

fted h

I want to hear what a man sounds