The following weeks brought their own particular, difficult adjustment, Ivy confined largely to the apartment, her firm's work handled remotely with Kennedy's careful accommodation, and the particular frustration of forced stillness settled uncomfortably against her natural instinct toward active problem solving.

"I feel useless," she admitted to Sterling one evening, watching him review documents related to the Cross situation without her, a division of labor that felt, despite its obvious necessity, uncomfortably reminiscent of earlier months when he'd tried to shield her from difficult things for reasons that hadn't always served either of them well.

"You're not useless," Sterling said, setting the documents aside to focus fully on her. "You're...