I went into that operating room a wife who had spent fifteen years disappearing.

I came out of it a woman with a great deal to do, and the whole of her memory intact to do it with.

Chapter 6 — Richard Vance

A week after the surgery, as soon as I was steady enough to walk the length of the hospital corridor on my own, I called Richard Vance — no relation, a happy coincidence of name; my family’s estate attorney, a man who had managed my father’s holdings since before I ever met Alejandro, and mine since my father died.

I told him everything.

The pre-surgery visit.