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For the first ti Tully

"You better think about how youre treating led to sound in control "I love youme on purpose "

"Its not my fault "

Kate sighed "How could it be, Marah? Nothing ever is "

It was exactly the wrong thing to say Kate knew it the second she said it, but she couldnt take it back

Marah yanked open the door and slammed it shut behind her

Quiet came instantly Sos barked at each other She heard people walking around downstairs The floorboards of this old house creaked with the movement

Kate looked at the phone, waiting for it to ring

"I think it was Mother Teresa who said that loneliness is the worst kind of poverty," Tully said, sipping her dirty martini

The man to whom she spoke looked startled for aon some dark, empty stretch of road and a deer had suddenly bounded into his path Then he laughed, and there was so much in the sound, a shared cae No doubt hed learned to laugh like that in the hallowed halls of Harvard or Stanford "What do people like us know about poverty or loneliness? There must be one hundred people here, at your birthday party, and God knows the chane and caviar didnt come cheap "

Tully stood there, trying—and failing—to reht to knoho in the hell he was

And why had she er?

Disgusted with herself, she finished the martini—her second—and walked over to the makeshift bar that had been set up in the corner of her penthouse Behind the tuxedoed bartender, the glittering starburst of the Seattle skyline was a hts and black sky

She waited i small talk with the bartender The minute the drink was ready, she set a course for the terrace, sailing past the table overfloith foil- and ribbon-wrapped gifts She kneithout opening a single package the kind of gifts shed received: chalasses from Waterford or Baccarat; silver bracelets and frames from Tiffany; Montblanc pens; perhaps a cashlass candlesticks The kind of expensive presents that strangers and co-workers gave each other when theyd reached a certain economic status

There wouldnt be anything personal in any of those beautifully wrapped packages