Victoria came back down twenty minutes later.

Elena heard the bedroom door open, then the slow steps on the stairs. She was still sitting on the edge of the couch with Marcus beside her, his hand resting lightly on the back of her neck. Neither of them had moved much since Victoria went upstairs. The black bag and the phone still sat on the coffee table like evidence no one had the right to touch.

Victoria stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Her face looked older than it had half an hour earlier. The careful composure she wore for clients and long workdays was gone. What replaced it was...