Adaira would learn, later, exactly how much that daily return had cost him, and how much it had saved her.

Chapter 4 — The Rehearsed Grief

Her husband came only when it was useful to be seen coming.

Chandler Redgrave appeared when there were cameras, or when a senior partner from the firm asked after her.

He arrived with enormous bouquets of expensive lilies, in an immaculate suit, wearing a grief so perfectly composed that the nurses brought him coffee and offered him their sympathy. My wife was an extraordinary woman, he would say to the room, in a voice pitched for an audience. I would give my whole fortune to see her open her eyes. Trapped in the dark, Adaira learned to loathe that sentence more than any other.

Because she knew what was underneath it.