Chapters (54)
- Cover
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Epilogue
- A Note from the Author
- Discussion Questions
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Acclaim for David Rawlings
- Also by David Rawlings
She opened the closet, and there it sat, tumblers scrambled. She squatted in front of the case and placed her thumbs on the clasps. There was no give, and she had no idea what the combination might be. An extra level of intrusion settled on her as she thought about picking the lock.
Under the briefcase was the end of a thin strip of paper, and on it, a single word. Clarity. She lifted the case and saw a familiar phrase—Clarity like you’ve never experienced before—next to a logo for Simon’s Film Lab and a scrawl she’d seen hundreds of times. It belonged to Daniel.
She picked up the strip with trembling fingers. Between Simon’s logo and Daniel’s signature was tiny text. She squinted hard.
This represents a sacred contract between the holder and the truth they need to see.
Kelly held in her hand the key to the answers about her husband. His well-being. Her happiness. She raced out of the study, her next stop Simon’s to get the photos that upset Daniel so much that he’d flung the last gift from his beloved Gramps to the rocks and pounding surf.
Thirty-Nine
Kelly slid the strip of paper across the counter with a shaky cocktail of fear and trepidation. The whole drive to the film lab had been an infuriating crawl in traffic, with each red light giving her extra time to picture the worst and then wallow in it.
Simon rose on the balls of his feet as he looked down at the counter. “So Daniel has come clean with you.”
A lie toyed with her mind. She had to get her hands on Daniel’s photos.
Simon smiled into her hesitation. “I’m glad you chose honesty. Your photos will be ready in just a few moments.”
The emotion that had threatened to spill over all day lapped again at the edges of her self-control. “I need to know what in these photos is upsetting Daniel so much. He ditched a meeting at school about his daughter’s future, and now he isn’t returning my calls.”
“Truth. Inescapable truth.”
“What does that mean?”
Simon stood tall. “Do you remember when you said you were honest with your boss and it hadn’t, you said, worked? Well, sometimes your honesty doesn’t produce results you can see with your eyes. Sometimes the results are about your own integrity. Sometimes they’re about the longer term. Sometimes the longest term.”
Kelly flashed back to the fleeting adrenaline surge of victory as she strutted from her boss’s office at Rubicon Pharma, then forward to now, when her triumph of quitting to his face was crumbling under the erosion of bills and an uncertain future.
Simon stroked his chin and studied her. “Sometimes it takes time. Like with you.”
The elation of her win over Arnold ebbed away. “What do you mean?”