"It's his own fault for leaving them upstairs," his newly minted widow said aloud in the deathly quiet house. Either way, Ashlee decided no one else needed to know anything about the last few hours of Gerald's life. It was better to let his friends and daughter believe nothing out of the ordinary had happened, that nature had simply taken its sad course.

Yet Ashlee found herself trembling, and then the fatigue that comes on after an intense adrenaline rush. A huge part of her was still so angry with Gerald for being such a special brand of asshole that she realized she was more in shock than grieving. Maybe...