I laughed along at every one of those jokes, and each laugh I gave her was a small betrayal of myself, a public confirmation of a decline that was not happening — because it was easier to be a good sport than to ask why my wife was so intent on establishing, in company, that my mind was going.

Chapter 6 — Anouk

A young woman named Anouk worked in our home.

She was twenty-nine, quiet, always modestly dressed.

Her mother needed a serious operation, and Anouk worked from morning to night trying to earn enough to cover it.

Dulce disliked her from the first.