And slowly I came to understand that the silence was not weakness or defeat but the purest contempt a person can express — the contempt of someone who wants nothing from you at all, who has removed you so completely from her accounting that you have become, functionally, a dead man.

I had wanted to be free of her.

She had granted the wish so thoroughly that being free of her became the loneliest fact of my life.

Chapter 3 — The Name on the Program

“Look at that,” Delphine’s whisper pulled me back.

She was pointing a manicured nail at Auberon, who was yawning openly through the host’s monologue.

“He did mock exams all week.

If he doesn’t win today I’ll sue the organizers.