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her heels, and slumped into a chair, staring out into space. She didn’t know how long she stayed like that for, without moving, without thinking, but the sky darkened to violet and then indigo, and her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and that had been no more than half a bagel as she hurried to work. Yet she still couldn’t summon the energy to eat. To feel. Anything. She hadn’t felt this numb—the pain too consuming to allow herself to feel it—for a long time. For ten years.
    Finally she stirred and went to the bathroom. She turned both taps on full and stripped off her clothes, leaving hersavvy suit crumpled on the floor. Who knew if she’d need it any more?
    Twenty minutes into a good soak she felt her mind start to thaw. So did her heart. So Jace assumed she’d been unfaithful, had been labouring under that unbelievable misapprehension for ten long years. No wonder he was so angry. Yet how could he be so
wrong?
    How could he have thought that of her, considering what they’d been to one another? Even the logistics of infidelity were virtually impossible; she’d spent nearly every waking moment working, at school, or with him.
    Yet he’d believed it, and believed it so strongly that he’d judged her without trial, without even a conversation. He’d been so sure of her infidelity that he’d left her, left his entire life in the States, without even asking so much as a single question.
    Somehow it was so much worse than what she’d thought all these years: that he’d developed a case of cold feet. In her more compassionate moments, she could understand how a twenty-two-year-old man—
boy
?with his whole life in front of him might get a little panicked at the thought of fathering a child. She understood that; what she didn’t understand, had never understood, was the way he’d gone about it. Leaving so abruptly. Abandoning her without a word or even a way for him to contact him. Cellphone disconnected. No forwarding address.
    It hadn’t been merely a slap to the face, it had been a stab wound to the heart.
    And he’d done it not because of his own inadequacy, but because of hers. Infidelity. He actually assumed she’d cheated on him.
    The bath water was getting cold, and Eleanor rose from the tub. There was no point letting herself dwell on the recriminations, the regrets. If Jace Zervas had been able to believe something so atrocious and impossible about her so easily, obviously they’d never had much of a relationship at all.
    And
that
was a truth she’d lived with for ten years.
    She’d just slipped on her comfort pyjamas?soft, nubby fleece—when her doorbell rang. Eleanor stilled. She lived on the thirtieth floor in a building with two security personnel at the front door at all times, so no one made it to her door without her being alerted. The only option, she supposed, was a neighbour, although she’d never really got to know her neighbours. It wasn’t that kind of building, and she didn’t have that kind of life.
    Cautiously Eleanor went to the door. She peered through the eyehole and felt her heart stop for a second before beginning a new, frenetic beating. Jace stood there.
    ‘Eleanor?’
    He sounded impatient, and it was no wonder. Eleanor realised she was hesitating for far too long. Resolutely she drew a breath and opened the door.
    ‘What are you doing here, Jace?’
    ‘I need to talk to you.’
    She folded her arms and didn’t move. She didn’t feel angry now so much as resigned. ‘I told you in your office I had nothing to say.’
    ‘You may not, but I do.’ He arched an eyebrow. ‘Are you going to let me in?’
    ‘How did you get my address?’
    ‘Your boss gave it to me.’
    Eleanor gave an exasperated sigh.
Of course.
Lily would do just about anything for a client, especially a rich one like Jace. ‘How did you get past security?’
    ‘I sweet-talked him.’
    Eleanor snorted. ‘You?’
    ‘Andreas is manning the door tonight. He has six