“Do you still love me?” he asked.

There was a time I would have given any answer that kept us from arguing.

Instead I said, “Love isn’t the only question anymore.”

He looked down, then nodded.

I went home alone, relieved to find that the loneliness I feared wasn’t as empty as I had imagined.

PART 20

The investigation into Daniel Price moved slowly enough that I sometimes wished I had never opened the folder.

Then one afternoon Evelyn called with news: prosecutors had received the completed investigative file and were evaluating potential charges related to the collision and the alleged financial misconduct.