Chapter 19: Keith Walks In

Keith's POV

I found my wife in Mara's kitchen, with a suitcase open on the counter and the cobalt canisters pushed to one side.

The crew had gone home for the night, and the house was quiet.

Vera looked up.

She was wearing one of Mara's cardigans, which she had found in a closet, and she didn't take it off.

"You came," she said. "Ashton said you would."

"He's a good guesser."

"He's a good friend."

She said it lightly, and went on folding a silk blouse into the suitcase.

I stood in the doorway.

I had practiced a dozen speeches in the car, and every one of them had been about being angry.

What came out was, "Why?"

She laughed.

"That's all? I thought you'd throw something."

"I'd like to know why."

She finished the blouse.

She smoothed it flat and turned to lean on the counter.

The bright face dropped away, and the one under it looked older.

"I was twenty-four when I met you," she said. "You were Keith Danner."

"And?"

"Every girl in my acting class had your poster. I thought I'd won something."

"And then?"

"And you retired." She said the word like an insult. "You had every award in the world, and you bought a house on a hill and sat in it."

She waited.

"You didn't want to work, and you didn't want to be seen. You wanted to grow tomatoes."

"I never grew a tomato."

"You wanted to." She pushed off the counter. "I married a name, Keith, and I got a man who looked at a lake."

"So you took the money."

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