A widowed businessman returns early to his quiet mansion, ready to confront the housekeeper, but what he sees changes everything

she heard him and moved to close the book, but he shook his head and put on the kettle and sat down across from her.

“Can I see?”

She turned the sketchbook toward him. The page held a drawing of the garden in the afternoon light — the two easels, two small figures, the long shadows of October. It was done in pencil with the quick, confident line of someone continue reading …