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Back A Small Affair Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. Part Two
  22. 1
  23. 2
  24. 3
  25. 4
  26. 5
  27. 6
  28. 7
  29. 8
  30. 9
  31. 10
  32. 11
  33. 12
  34. 13
  35. 14
  36. 15
  37. 16
  38. 17
  39. 18
  40. 19
  41. Part Three
  42. 1
  43. 2
  44. 3
  45. 4
  46. 5
  47. 6
  48. 7
  49. 8
  50. 9
  51. 10
  52. EPILOGUE
  53. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  54. Booklist

Finally, finally, while I was showering long and hard for the first time in a week, Quinn installed something on my computer, on my phone, preventing me from searching for myself. Some kind of parental control. And I screamed at him. This is all I have left. And he took me by the shoulders and said. Vera. Vee. You have me.

I showed up to work sometime later, who knows how long it had been, really. Huda had been avoiding me, telling me to take more time. And when I got to the office, early as usual, my key didn’t work. Huda was in the building; she knew I was there. I called her, texted her. She ignored me. Twenty-three minutes later there was an email. Cursory. I’d been terminated. Ostensibly for some mistake I’d made on an expense report. They would send my things to me.

I went into the bathroom in the lobby of the building, turned on all the hand-drying vents and screamed.

Later, I would learn that Huda had lost a round of investing from Apax. Because of me. Because of the way I had tarnished the brand. The investors were willing to renegotiate if I were scrubbed clean from the company. It was timing’s fault, in my opinion. If the investment meeting had been even a month later, I think she would have been in the clear. It hadn’t even occurred to me to ask her how it went, even while I was off, because it was a given that it would go well. But no. I, my face, my name, had fucked everything up.

Then I packed my things, bid farewell to the apartment and fled to my mother, who had only checked in on me once during this whole deadly mess of a mistake.

One survivor, said all those papers, referring to Penelope. But sometimes, sometimes I feel like I was in that home with them that fatal evening, the second survivor of Tom’s violent, nefarious final act.

Part Two

PART
TWO

1

ODILIE

Ten years ago

The woman came in for a whitening. But her teeth were already white, bone white.

Odilie Patterson didn’t take much of a glance when she was called in, briefly, to help out Dr. Forsyth; Elena, the hygienist, was out sick that day and a tiny office like theirs required the receptionist to help out from time to time.