Lucia plainly had no idea why Jules was coming along, but she knew Vivian well enough to be wary of any change in plans or routine. So while she wasn’t rude to Jules exactly, she wasn’t chatty either.

That was fine. She tried as hard as she could to concentrate on the meeting with Alyson Langer because that was why Vivian had wanted her to go in the first place. She just had a hard time focusing, and it was all she could do to take the notes Vivian would need.

Jules’s phone rang just before the end of the meeting. It was Vivian, and Jules gave everybody in the room an apologetic smile before hurrying out into the lobby to a quiet corner where nobody would be listening in. “Hello, Vivian?”

“How many rings does it take before you decide to pick up?”

“Sorry,” Jules said, trying not to sound breathless from her little sprint. “I’m at Givenchy, and I wanted to find someplace qui—”

“Have you made the appointment?”

Jules took a deep breath. “Yes. Eight tomorrow morning.”

“Where is it?” Vivian asked as if she might call the whole thing off if Jules had picked an unfashionable part of town.

“East Forty-Fourth. I found a clinic where you can reserve the whole place to yourself during your appointment, no other patients. So I did that. You should have plenty of privacy.”

After a pause, Vivian said, “Thank you.”

The ensuing silence left just enough room for Jules’s heartbeat to chatter away in her ears. She fumbled for words and landed on “Of course. Um. The clinic’s named—”

“Text me the details.” Vivian suddenly sounded very, very tired. “I won’t remember anything you tell me right now.”

Jules managed to stop herself from asking if Vivian was okay. Of course she wasn’t. Jules’s job was to be useful. She just had to think of a tactful way to ask if she was going to be there.

“Will I be meeting you?” she asked, proud of the steadiness in her voice.

Another silence. This one went on even longer. Just as Jules was about to apologize for her presumption, Vivian said, “I’ll see you there at seven forty-five.”

Jules stopped herself from exhaling audibly. Sure, it was ridiculous to feel a rush of relief. Sure, she shouldn’t want to be further involved in this. But none of that stacked up against the idea of Vivian sitting in that waiting room alone.

Would Vivian tell anyone else? Did she have friends she could call for support? Other than her ex-husbands, Jules had never heard her mention any family. Vivian Carlisle seemed sui generis, underived from any other material.

“I’ll be there,” she said.

One more pause, just long enough that Jules wondered if she was about to be thanked again. Vivian disconnected instead.

She looked at her phone, her heart aching again. Vivian would be all alone tonight.