Her hands shook.

I had seen Cordelia angry, calculating, cruel, and charming, but rarely frightened.

“Do you have any idea what people are saying about us?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“And I have finally stopped thinking that their opinion is the most important thing.”

Our marriage had never been free of genuine kindness.

She had been attentive when my father died.

I had held her hand through a surgery she feared.