What I understood was that the thing had been caught, traced, and set down on paper by people whose business it was to catch such things, and that no amount of denial was going to lift it back off the page.

The color drained from Julian’s face so completely that for a moment I thought he might faint onto the carpet.

Their lead attorney, who a minute before had stood so confidently at Victoria’s shoulder, took a small step backward and slid his hands into his pockets, the way a man does when he has suddenly decided he would rather not be touching anything in the room.

“Julian,” the attorney said quietly.