Not yet.
I turned the burner off and hid it again.
Then I cleaned the blood from my mouth.
I slept in the dressing room with the door locked.
At seven the next morning, I heard Adrian showering.
At seven-thirty, he came downstairs whistling.
I was standing beside the kitchen island when he entered carrying a cream-colored shopping bag with gold handles.
He placed it in front of me.
“What is this?”
“Open it.”
Inside was a cosmetics case from a luxury brand I had once admired in Paris.
Foundation.
Concealer.
Color corrector.
Powder.
Everything required to hide an injury elegantly.
For several seconds I just looked at it.
Adrian poured himself coffee.
“My mother will be here at twelve-thirty.”
I lifted my eyes.
He nodded toward my face.
“Cover that up and smile.”
No apology.
Not even a fake one.
I touched the soft leather cosmetics pouch.
“How much did this cost?”
He shrugged.
“Does it matter?”
More than he knew.
Because eight weeks earlier, the first crack in our marriage had not appeared in a bedroom.
It had appeared on a financial statement.
I had been sitting in my studio at the rear of the house, reviewing restoration drawings for a nineteenth-century library, when Mara Chen called.
Mara had managed my father’s trust investments since I was twenty-nine.
She was careful, unsentimental and almost impossible to surprise.
That afternoon, she sounded surprised.
“Did you request certified copies of the trust’s distribution schedule?”
“No.”
“Did Adrian?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“A request arrived from Holloway Capital.”
My husband’s firm.
My fingers stopped moving across the blueprint.
“What exactly did they request?”
“Projected principal available upon your fortieth birthday, restrictions on assignment and documentation for collateral review.”
Collateral.
I remember saying the word out loud.
Mara became very quiet.
“Eleanor, has anyone discussed using your trust assets to secure financing?”
“No.”
“Then call an attorney before you ask your husband anything.”
That was eight weeks ago.
I called Rebecca that afternoon.
Daniel joined us two days later.
And slowly, the life I thought I understood began coming apart.
