hought her lif

ed Ethan

s everyone talked abo

ollege, a bright scholarship student

was Mrs.

ouse had views that

he found out she was pregnant with

rah," he said,

everything.

ic business failure, a

tart of a new,

, replaced by a crampe

rld of faded paint and

ions on hold, the ones

cleaning houses, anyth

"working," tryi

the verge of a bre

rs, this was

Leo, and tried to keep their s

in Ethan, in

ha

iet boy who watched h

o's fifth

a server at a fancy c

perfect appetizers while her own son's birth

bilt, a socialite whose pict

t came for the gala's

is "phoenix-like rise

ll walked on

of champagne flutes

successful, the man

oken man who shared

n in the shadows of

charming

she s

Vanderbilt with a di

Sarah, "when things turn around, baby,

amplified slightly

you, V," Ethan said to Vi

oking waiter thinking he might

hand clu

seen

crifices, Leo's quiet depri

eeling spread

surfaced,

ago, before t

Victoria, an old fr

hat she wanted, V.

it off, a c

thought anyth

piece of a puzzle

for Victoria ha

Had it been a stop

was a fresh

mpire, apparently,

Leo, his eyes wi

about her; it w

ceived her but had de

n stage, contrasted sharply with the image of hi

began to form i

she had sacrificed

noth

ife, who valued another woman,

e certainty, that this l

ater, as the gala

th success, still

here?" he asked, a flicker

said, her voice low and

hand. "Can it wait?

r what she'd just witn

understand the earthquake that h

was the compliant,

as w