I find the information on the books she mentioned writing. I have not read them. The reviews are excellent from respected newspapers, her sales are not bad, they are not great though either. While she only has three out the fourth has already received positive reviews ahead of its release in two months.

She writes under her full name Alexandra De Luca Clark. I wonder if it is the reason why she did not take her husband’s last name. Professionally, as a businessman who has worked hard to make a name for myself, I fully support a woman’s choice to keep her maiden name. After all, it was she, not her husband, who earned her place in her profession. Personally, it would outrage me if my woman did not take my name.

Excellent, no debts except the mortgage on her condo purchased two years ago. Interesting, she is the only one on the mortgage. Hmm...maybe her husband has debt that made it better for her to be on it alone. I consider digging into him only to discount it. Her personal bank accounts are healthy.

Reading further I see now where she inherited her strength. Her father was a foster child, born to Mexican illegals in the south side of Chicago. Alexander Clark started life as Alejandro Martinez. His parents were caught in an immigration raid and deported back to Mexico. He spent several years in the foster system before ending up with a family when he was thirteen. He was adopted a year later, becoming Alexander Raymond Martinez Clark.

There is a single paragraph on him, with one picture of him. It’s a screenshot from his Facebook page. I ignore the hot, tingling sensation at the back of my neck. Felix Maine, he looks older than thirty-four. Was this really the kind of man she went for?

He was skinny, tall, Hispanic with a thin mustache. Was Maine a Latin last name? There is nothing else in the file about him. Just a few short sentences. They met five years ago, married two years ago. Nothing on his previous position just the tech startup he had been at for a year. I stamp down the desire to know more about Felix Maine. Maine is not important, I have everything I need on Alexa. I close the file, it is done.

6

Alexa

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I’m standing in front of my closet where I’ve been for the last ten minutes. Any minute now the perfect outfit will jump out of the closet at me. I can’t stop thinking about what Victoria said, Leo preferred women to dress like women. He liked women in skirts and dresses and hated pantsuits and slacks. Since I was already such a failure in all the other ways of what he thought a woman should look like the last thing I want is to fail at this too.