I never learned exactly what she had believed she was walking into, or what she believed when she walked out, and I found I did not care; she had signed on to build a family with a man on the strength of a lie he had told about the last woman who tried, and she could sort out the arithmetic of that on her own time.

Julian caught up with me in the corridor outside, all his sneering gone, his hands actually reaching for me.

“Sloan, please,” he said.

“Please.

We can fix this.

Whatever it takes, we can—”