Tonight’s meeting was supposed to be the greatest deal of his career.

Now two children with his eyes were sitting twenty rows behind him.

The plane rose into the dark Oregon sky. Damon looked through the gap between the seats. Luke was pressing both hands against the window; the little girl sat beside Cassandra, clutching a gray stuffed elephant named Eleanor.

Cassandra glanced toward first class, found him watching, and looked away at once.

He remembered their final morning together. At twenty-nine, Damon had been a talented software engineer earning just enough to convince himself he was successful and not enough to feel secure.

When a Seattle company offered him a promotion, stock options, and a path into executive leadership, he had assumed Cassandra would celebrate. Instead, she’d stared at the relocation papers on their kitchen table.