On a cold evening in September, Alexander came home early.
Lily was in the library, curled in the window seat with a thick book on corporate finance.
She heard his footsteps in the hall, quick and a little uneven, and looked up in surprise. He was never home before eight.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"No." He stood in the doorway for a moment, as if he were weighing something. "Would you have dinner with me tonight? Properly, I mean. At the table, with the candles."
"We have dinner every night."
"We have meals. This will be dinner."
She did not understand, but she nodded.
The dining room had been transformed. Candles burned along the long table, and the lights had been dimmed. Mr. Harris, standing very straight by the door, seemed to have been informed of something that he was not at liberty to share. Two places were set at one end, close together, with a bouquet of white roses between them.
Alexander pulled out her chair. She sat, feeling more and more bewildered.
They ate in near silence. The food was excellent, but she could not taste it. Alexander was unusually quiet, turning his glass between his fingers and glancing at her sideways when he thought she wasn't watching. Twice he started to speak and stopped.
When the plates were cleared, he reached beneath the table and set something down in front of her.
It was a flat package wrapped in plain paper.
"What's this?"
"A gift. Open it."
She peeled back the paper carefully. Inside, in a silver frame, was her mother's photograph.
The crack was gone. The glass was new. He had cleaned and repaired the old print so skillfully that the small, laughing face looked up at her as if it had never been damaged. Anna Thompson, twenty-five years old, holding a yellow blanket and squinting into the sun.
Lily put her hand over her mouth.
"Mrs. Zara found it in your bag," said Alexander. "I hope you don't mind. I asked a restorer to see what could be done."
"I don't..." Her voice broke. "I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." He cleared his throat. "Lily. I want to talk to you about something. It is a business matter."
She blinked. "Business?"
"I would like to propose an agreement."
"What kind of agreement?"
He folded his hands on the tablecloth, like a man about to deliver a difficult speech.
"My father is retiring from his company at the end of the year. He has chosen me to take over as chief executive. But he has set a condition." A muscle moved in his jaw.
"He will not hand the company to an unmarried man. He believes it shows a lack of stability. He has given me until the board meeting in next month."
"That's absurd."
"I agree. He doesn't."
"And you want..."
"I want a fiancée."
The word hung in the air. Lily stared at him.
"I am not asking you to marry me," he said, quickly. "Not in any real sense. I am asking you to agree to be my fiancée.
For a year. It would be a contract. A fake engagement, nothing more. We would appear together in public.
We would be seen to be devoted. At the end of the year, we would quietly part ways, and no one would be hurt."
"What?"
It came out louder than she intended. She shot to her feet, nearly overturning her chair.
"I can't do that!"
"Lily, listen..."
"You want me to lie? To your family? To the whole city?"
"I want you to help me," said Alexander. His voice was calm, but his eyes were not. "My family is closing in on me.
My father is not a patient man, and the board is waiting for me to fail.
I have spent almost all my years helping build this company, and I will not lose it because I refused to marry a stranger." He paused. "I have no one else I can ask.
And you are the only person I have ever met who asked for nothing."
She stared at him, breathing hard.
"I know it is a great deal to ask," he said. "I would not ask if I did not trust you. Think about it. That is all I want. Take as long as you need."
She turned and walked out of the room, her mother's photograph clutched to her chest.
In the corridor, her knees gave way, and she leaned against the wall with her heart pounding in her ears. Her whole body was shaking.
Not with anger, she realized slowly.
With something much more dangerous.