'Til Death Do Us Part Read Free Page A

house gives an impression of wealth.”
    â€œI find that impression useful in my business,” she said briskly.
    He shook his head. “Do not tell me that you have not thought of me this past year. I dream of you every night.”
    â€œI do not think about you often, Nestor, but when I do I give thanks that you ended our association when you did. I dread to imagine what my life would have been like if we had married.”
    He turned to look at her with a beseeching expression.
    â€œYou may be content with your spinsterhood, but I am married to a coldhearted bitch who thinks it is amusing to have affairs with my friends,” he said.
    â€œProbably because she suspects you are having affairs with her friends.”
    Nestor exhaled a long, heartfelt sigh. “I will not deny that I have occasionally sought comfort where I could find it. I am lonely, Calista. I remember how we used to laugh together and share our impressions of books and art and poetry. As far as I can determine, my wife’s only serious intellectual pursuits are shopping and séances.”
    â€œAs she evidently has the money to pursue both, I fail to see the problem.”
    â€œI have endured nearly a year of a marriage made in hell,” Nestor said through his teeth. “The least you can do is spare me your sarcasm.”
    She got to her feet. “This meeting is finished. You appear to be under the mistaken assumption that I would be eager to resume our relationship. But that is not the case. It has been over a year since you revealed your true nature to me, and now that I am aware of it, I am no longer interested in pursuing any sort of association with you.”
    â€œI don’t believe that.” He stopped in front of her desk and flattened his palms on the polished surface. “You are afraid to trust your heart again. I understand. But I remember your passionate spirit very well.”
    â€œWhatever I once felt for you evaporated long ago, Nestor.”
    â€œNothing could vanquish that burning flame. You and I are not like other people. We are possessed of a deep appreciation of themetaphysical. We comprehend the meaning of a true marriage of the souls. We do not need the legal trappings. We are meant to be together until death do us part.”
    â€œUnder the circumstances I’d rather you didn’t quote the old lines in the wedding vows to me. You are wasting your time, Nestor.”
    â€œYou must give me a chance. You owe me that much.”
    â€œI owe you nothing,” she said. “I insist that you leave. I have an appointment in a few minutes.”
    â€œDo not tell me that you no longer have feelings for me. I refuse to believe that. You and I were privileged to know a rare sort of love, one that will once again transport us to a higher plane on the wings of passion. I promise that I will rekindle the emotions you once felt for me.”
    â€œSorry. Not possible.”
    She had been in the introductions business for some time now, and if there was one thing she had learned, it was that friendship—not passion—provided the only solid foundation for an enduring relationship. All she promised her clients was an opportunity to meet like-minded people and perhaps develop friendships. If some of those associations were transformed into marriages, that was all well and good. But her agency made no guarantees. And her clientele, spinsters and men of a certain age who found themselves alone in the world, were usually as clear-eyed as she was on the subject.
    Although she was not about to tell Nestor, the truth was that now, safely ensconced in the spinsterhood that she had once feared, she had serious reservations about the value of marriage, at least for women. It was a stacked deck of cards in favor of men, as far as she was concerned.
    The Married Woman’s Property Act a few years earlier had provided a measure of legal relief for females—they could now own and