“And I heard you tell my children that I don’t have the time and I don’t have the interest.” His voice finally went.

“You want to know the worst part?

That one nearly worked.

Because it’s the only thing you said today that had any truth in it at all.”

Sabina’s face did something complicated.

For a moment there was actual calculation visible on it, raw, like machinery with the housing off — she was running options, and he could see her running them, and then he watched her land on the only one left.

She began to cry.