"What are you doing?" he asked, startling his wife. She crumpled the page in her hand as she looked up to meet his eyes.

"Nothing," she smiled forcefully. "Sophia wrote. She feels that at her age, writing is easier than getting out and visiting. You know how she can go on and on..."

He pried the paper from her hand as she spoke. He was not the man she had married so long ago, she reminded herself. After that dreadful scandal and its aftermath...after he had lost his standing among his peers, he had hardened against her. He blamed her. As if she had allowed it to happen!

"Sophia?" he questioned, catching her in her lie. "Then why does it say--"

"What does it matter now?" she pleaded. "Let them be...they're all but forgotten by everyone but you!"

"As am I," he snapped. He read the letter again. "But this...this could bring us back! Don't you see? This baby could be our chance at the life we knew then! We can go back! Don't you want the parties and the dinners? People respected us!"

"People were scared of us," she insisted. "They knew that if we wanted their lives, they could be the next to disappear!"

"Fear is respect," he argued. "It keeps those weaker than us in line."

"Don't you understand?" she tried. "We were next! That child is not a way out of a life, it is a lock on our prison door! Let them be, I beg you."

"I've done enough begging," he decided, folding the letter and placing it into his pocket. "You should feel the same way by now."

"I have made restitutions for my actions," she admitted. "This news was proof of that. This punishment, this exile...I would continue living here if I could look forward to more letters from her."

"Take another pill, Regan," Gabriel sighed, turning on his heel. "You're so much more enjoyable company when you aren't playing the victim."

Regan watched him go, her heart twisting as she realized she hadn't copied the contact information from the letter. She could only hope the executives would not see the child - her gr