In the end, the police traced the purchase records back to her and cleared my name. But because she'd destroyed nearly six months of the institute's work, she was blacklisted from the field entirely.
Nora, of course, blamed all of it on me.
She'd been looking for payback ever since.
"I have to say, I didn't expect your man to be so easy to reel in. A few staged run-ins and he convinced himself it was fate."
"He complained about you constantly—how you spent every day locked in your lab, how boring you were. Not like me..."
"I can give him the kind of pleasure you never could."
She tugged the silk scarf from her neck, revealing a trail of bruises scattered across her skin.
Her eyes locked on mine, daring me to react.
"I asked Carter how many children he wanted. Guess what he said?"
"He said the more the better. Because he's going to love our children so, so much."
Nora's brows arched in triumph. She was searching my face for devastation, for the cracks she was so sure would appear.
Instead, I smiled.
A big happy family?
They were in for a disappointment.
A year ago, when Carter and I returned from Doctors Without Borders, we'd both gotten full physicals.