Chapter 1

Lena had been coming to Revive Wellness for eight months.

Every other Saturday, ten am, ninety minutes with her usual therapist Marco who had the specific gift of finding every knot in her shoulders and dismantling it without ceremony and who talked just enough to be pleasant without requiring her to be present in any meaningful way. It was the one thing she did entirely for herself and she protected it with the specific ferocity of a woman who spent the rest of her life doing things for other people.

She arrived at nine fifty five, signed in at the desk, changed into the robe in the small...