Chapter 24: Name, Please

On Monday morning it was ninety-four degrees again, and I stood on the curb outside Hollister Group in the navy dress.

It was the same curb.

The same revolving door turned behind the glass.

No black Maybach drove past, because Porter's keys were in a drawer at my lawyer's office.

Tobias stood beside me in the navy suit with no tie.

He had not said a word since the car.

"You can go in first," I said. "I'll be right behind you."

"No."

"I wasn't serious."

"You were. You always say it as a joke first." He held out his arm, and I took it. "Beside you."

We crossed the sidewalk together and pushed through the door.

The lobby was cool and white, and it smelled like floor polish and coffee.

The security desk stood where it had always stood, with the same guard behind it.

He stood up when he saw me.

At the elevators, a line of employees with badges clipped to their belts turned their heads.

Somebody whispered my name.

I hadn't known how loud a whisper could get when it was finally the right one.

I had walked through this lobby for eight years as the woman who worked on six.

Every morning I had tapped the same gray card on the turnstile.

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