She knew only that her arms ached and that the boarding pass in her pocket was the first document in weeks that had worked.

That is why, when he asked her to pretend sleep, she understood the request better than he knew.

Pretending had been her marriage.

This time the pretending had a time limit and a purpose she could see: phones going down, a child allowed to rest, a man allowed to be nobody.

She could lend nobody for two hours.

PART 11