“My attorney,” I said, “will be contacting yours on Monday.” Julian looked down at the envelope, and I watched him take in the crest of the law firm printed across the front of it, and I watched the last of the color leave his face.

“You retained Sarah Vance?” he said.

His voice had changed entirely.

The anger was gone, and something small and frightened had come into it, because a man in his position knew exactly what that name meant.

“I did,” I said.

“Evelyn,” he said, and he reached for my arm, “let’s take this outside, let’s just—” “Do not touch me,” I said, and I stepped back, out of his reach, and I drew Leo to my side.

And then the two of us simply turned and walked out of that ballroom, past the white flowers and the silver trays and the frozen faces, and we left Julian standing alone under the chandeliers, holding an envelope, surrounded by whispering board members and horrified clients and a mistress who was already, I could see, beginning to calculate her own exit.