Chapter One

The rain started a little after six, and by the time Laura got up to close the kitchen window, the number was already on the screen between them.

It was a Sunday. Daniel had promised himself he would look at the retirement projection on a weekday, with coffee and a clear head, not after a dinner that had run long and a second glass of wine that had made the evening feel softer than it was. But Laura had asked, casually, the way she asked things that weren't casual at all, “So are we actually going to look at it, or just keep talking about looking at it?” And so he had opened the laptop, and the spreadsheet had opened with it, cursor blinking in a cell that did not care what kind of evening this was supposed to be.

On paper, it was a good story. Two long careers, well managed. A home that had more than tripled in value since they’d bought it. A retirement account that had grown every year Daniel had bothered to check it. Two children raised and gone, doing well enough that they no longer worried about them daily. Every number on the page was a number they had earned.