The rules began the same morning I found the black card.

Dante returned at noon. He walked into the living room where I sat near the glass, still in the silk slip from the night before, and looked at me for a long, assessing moment. Then he spoke as if he were discussing the weather.

“From now on you will be dressed when I come home. Something soft. Something I can take off easily. You will wait in the living room or the bedroom—not in the kitchen, not on the balcony. When I walk through the door, you will come to me. No questions. No hesitation.”

I stared at him....