“I know,” I said, watching my son breathe.

“That’s the whole reason I’m awake.”

Chapter 6 — The Fragile Wife

A month later I came home to the estate in Highland Park, and I gave them the performance of their lives.

I had understood, lying in that recovery room, that my one real advantage was their contempt.

Ivan and his mother believed I was exhausted, fragile, and dependent, because that was the woman they needed me to be, and people are wonderfully easy to fool in the direction they already want to go.

So I let them see exactly that.