He looked up at me, his hands resting on his knees.

“I thought I could manage it,” he said. “I thought I could keep the business, and the money, and… you.”

“You couldn’t,” I said.

“Isabel called me,” Julian said, his voice dull. “She’s in Miami. She wanted to know if I could send her money.”

“Did you?”

“I don’t have any,” he said. “The bank froze the accounts this afternoon after Lydia’s filing.”

He leaned his head back against the wooden banister.

“I’m going to lose the firm, Elena.”

“You chose this, Julian,” I said. “You chose the lies.”

“I loved you,” he said.

I looked at him, sitting there in the empty house he had built on deceit.

“No,” I said. “You loved the image of us. You loved having a wife who didn’t ask questions.”

He didn’t deny it.

He just stared at the blank wall opposite him.

“I’m going to sell this house,” he said. “The bank will probably foreclose if I don’t.”

“I know,” I said.

I walked to the front door, holding the box of Harrison’s toys.

Julian didn’t move.