Those were the facts at the end of the evening.

The next day’s conversation would begin from them.

EPILOGUE — The Sentence She Finished

Claire read the unfinished paragraph from the beginning.

For several minutes, it seemed to belong to someone else’s work.

She could remember the figures she meant to discuss but not the transition that would make them clear.

She deleted six words, opened the reference file, and checked the numbers again.

Then she wrote a sentence she could keep.