It happened at around two o’clock in the morning: a stone thrown up at her window in the dead of night. Giulia was startled out of the torpor into which she had finally sunk. A second strike rang out. She peered through the glass: Kamal was on the street down below. He lifted his eyes to hers. He held the letter in his hand and called out:

Giulia! Come down!

We need to talk!

Giulia signalled to him to keep quiet. She was afraid her mother would wake up, or the neighbours – they were all light sleepers. But Kamal stood his ground. He insisted. He had to talk to her. Giulia gave in. Hurriedly, she dressed, ran downstairs and joined him in the street.

You’re mad, she told him.

You’re mad to come here.

And that was when the miracle occurred.

Sarah

Montreal, Canada

It started slowly, insidiously. First, a meeting at which someone had forgotten to include her. We didn’t want to bother you, the partner told her later.

Then a case that no one had mentioned to her. You’ve got enough on your plate at the moment. Phrases calculated to show they cared. They were almost believable. Sarah didn’t want special treatment, she wanted to carry on working, to be counted, like before. She wanted no one to make allowances. But she had sensed for some time that she was being involved less and less in the life of the firm, in the decisions to be taken, the management of the caseload. There were things people forgot to tell her, questions people would ask of someone else.

Since her illness had been made public, Curst had risen in the firm. Sarah saw him talking to Johnson far more often, laughing at his jokes, going out with him to lunch. Meanwhile, Inès was showing more initiative and taking greater liberties with the cases she handled, without consulting Sarah. When she called Inès to order, the junior would explain with a falsely apologetic air that Sarah hadn’t been there, or had been unavailable – in other words, she had been at the hospital. Inès took advantage of Sarah’s absences to take decisions and intervene at meetings in her place. She had become much closer to Curst lately and had even taken up smoking, solely – Sarah thought – in order to share cigarette breaks with her mentor. A chance of promotion … you never knew.