Chapter 14: Say Yes Out Loud

Desmond's POV

I told Katja before I went, because that was term two.

She was at the kitchen table at seven in the morning with a mug in both hands.

"I'm going to see Selene," I said. "Alone. I want it from her own mouth."

Katja looked at me for a while.

"The photograph," she said.

"I didn't know she took it. It was a lunch three weeks ago. I moved my hand the second I saw the phone."

"I believe you."

"You do?"

"Don't make me say it twice." She set the mug down. "Record her."

"Is that legal?"

"Our lawyer says Illinois needs both people to agree. Ask her something at the door that makes her say yes."

I stared at her.

"You asked the lawyer already."

"I asked at six. I've been awake since four."

I understood then that my wife had been planning this longer than I had known she was angry.

I understood it, and I was not afraid of her.

I was proud.

Selene lived on the fourth floor of a converted warehouse in Wicker Park, in an apartment my mother's Foundation had found for her.

I had paid two months of its deposit once, three years ago, and I'd never asked why a woman who planned parties lived above a gallery.

She opened the door in a silk robe with her hair wet.

Her face lit up, and then it dimmed to the proper sadness.

"Desmond. Thank God. I've been so frightened."

"May I record this conversation?" I said. "For my lawyer."

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