“Married? Yeah, at one time. Lisa . . . destroyed our marriage. She knew all the relevant birthdays and anniversary dates—not just ours but her parents’ or mine—and even if we had tickets to something amazing, like a Broadway show that was impossible to get into, she’d always come up with something I had to do, something that took priority over everything, some report that had to be done, some presentation that had to be prepared. Andrea couldn’t—”

“Andrea?”

He nodded. “My wife. Andrea couldn’t take it. She left me. She said to me one day, I had to make a choice. Her, or Lisa. My marriage, or my job.”

Sandra said. “And you chose wrong.”

A sly but sad smile crossed Ruskin’s lips. “Maybe. But I wasn’t going to let Lisa win. It was like she was daring me to quit, like all the others who’d come before. See how much shit I’d put up with before she broke me.” He drew in a breath. “I wasn’t going to let her break me.” The grin returned. “She did not break me.”

“I don’t . . . I don’t understand. When you’re in a horrible job, you quit, you find something else.” She paused, weighing her words. “That’s what any . . . normal person would do.”

Ruskin ran his finger along the edge of the laptop. “I’d never walked away from a challenge. My father, he . . . he . . .”

Ruskin stopped briefly, clenched his jaw.

“My father used to drill into me that only losers quit. Only losers walk away. When things get tough, you don’t knuckle under. You fight back.”

“But a deliberatively manipulative, nasty boss—walking away from someone like that—how could that be wrong? How could anyone blame you for that?”

“Every time I was ready to walk, I’d hear my father’s voice in my head. Doesn’t matter that he’s been dead for more than twenty years. He’s always there, judging me. So I didn’t quit, I didn’t walk away, I hung in. I was not going to let her defeat me.” He paused, and then he smiled. “And I didn’t. Lisa Carver perished, and I’ve survived.”

Ruskin smiled and extended his arms to the sides, as if getting ready to dance. “Free. I’m free.”

Sandra asked, “What did you mean, when you said ‘fight back’?”

“Hmm?”

“You said fight back. How’d you fight back? Lisa died.” She paused. “You got lucky. You didn’t defeat her yourself.” Another pause. “Or did you?”

He shook his head, then smiled as he continued to run a finger along the edges of the laptop. The two of them entered into a moment of silence that ended when someone else rapped at the door.

“Hold on!” Sandra shouted.

“What is it they say?” Ruskin asked. “Karma’s a bitch?”

“What are you saying?”