Simon stared at his cup and took a breath. “If I recall, editors far and wide said something along the lines of, while the writing was fantastic, they had a hard time connecting to the main character. They couldn’t determine a market audience. They liked it but didn’t love it, and some of them simply didn’t respond at all. Clare was a nobody, and I was a nobody agent. Collectively, we were easy to reject out of hand at that point in our careers.” Simon shrugged. “All of that, it’s fairly typical actually. It’s what she and I did after that first book—that’s the stuff of literary dreams.” His voice broke on the last word.

“Simon…” she said, her voice soft and trying to comfort.

He raised his hand to stop her, sucking air fast and hard through his nose. He shook his head once, as if trying to push away the sudden tsunami of grief that had washed over him again. “My every thought leads to her, and it’s like breaking in half over and over, and over. I don’t want to move. I don’t want to breathe… Why would she do this? Why would she leave me like this?”

Eileen shook her head. She had no idea what Clare could have been thinking, feeling—what might have driven her to something so desperate, so irrevocable. By all accounts, Clare’s life was perfect. At least that was what Eileen had always thought. Clare was beautiful, talented, successful, rich beyond belief, and adored by both her husband and her fans. She looked down at the book she still held in her hands, A Perfect Life. She now wondered if Simon’s suspicions could be correct. Was there something about this book that was different? Some message from Clare that someone who knew her could possibly decipher? But if Simon couldn’t see it… He had been the closest person to Clare for the last sixteen years. Simon and…

Eileen looked up at him. “Has our mother been told?”

He closed his eyes and sighed, as if just now remembering the elderly woman in the assisted living home who had lost her eldest daughter but had no idea any of it had happened. “No… I don’t know. Maybe someone from the Regency… God, I completely forgot about—”

“I’ll figure it out. I’m sure the home wouldn’t have told her without consulting one of us first. It will be best if I tell her.”

Simon nodded. “She didn’t even know who I was the last time I went with Clare to visit. It was like the last twenty years had disappeared for her.”