Julian took the documents from the study.

I packed the single bag.

We were quick and quiet and nearly calm, and we came out onto the landing at the top of the grand staircase with the bag between us and the front door in sight below, and I let myself feel, for one premature second, the enormous lightness of almost being gone.

Then the lights in the foyer came on.

She was standing at the bottom of the stairs.

She had not gone to any appointment; she had driven down the block and come back through the garage and waited for us, because of course she had, because she had heard something in us shift and she missed nothing.