Whatever their problems, they had never mentioned divorce. Not once, not in Houston, not in Washington. Maybe their marriage had never been that bad. Maybe after what he’d seen growing up, Brian believed divorce would cut the kids too deeply. Or maybe he was simply too passive-aggressive to suggest ending the marriage, while she was too worried about her work. Being divorced was no longer the kiss of career death it had once been at the bureau. But the FBI still preferred its agents to have a spouse, two kids, and a dog. She also couldn’t help thinking how expensive divorce could be, how she might be on the hook for child support and alimony.
In other words, maybe they stuck together for the exact reasons their marriage had been crummy in the first place.
Rebecca wondered sometimes what might happen after Tony graduated high school. She would still be in her forties at that point. Just young enough to start again. She wasn’t exactly ticking off the days on the wall prison-style, but she couldn’t pretend the possibility didn’t offer relief. Like watching the flight map on a turbulent plane ride, miles scrolling slowly by. This won’t last forever.
* * *
Still, she didn’t have much to complain about as she left her thirties behind and began the long march through middle age. Her job became more interesting as the Russians became more aggressive. Then a flaw in a CIA communications system exposed whole networks of the agency’s spies in China and Iran. One by one they vanished. The dead spies were not Americans, but foreign nationals whom the CIA had recruited. So the agency could hide its failure from the public for years. But the episode taught Rebecca that espionage really was a life-and-death business. Like China and Iran, Russia would not hesitate to execute anyone it caught spying for the United States.
Brian’s NSA pay ended their short-term money worries. Of course, a house was still out of reach and she wondered about how they’d pay for college. But on a week-to-week, month-to-month basis they were okay. She even traded in the 330i for the 335i.
She wondered about Todd Taylor, whether he’d found someone else. Sometimes when she closed her eyes she saw his. She sometimes dreamed about him, dreams that usually ended in disaster. Once they were line dancing and an earthquake hit. But she never called him.
Watching the kids become actual independent people was both terrifying and gratifying. Kira turned twelve and hit puberty and turned gorgeous and skinny and then too skinny. Tony found a couple of dorky friends and started to play Dungeons & Dragons, the old-fashioned version with the twenty-sided dice.
And then they got rich.
Thanks to Brian.
One day at dinner, apropos of nothing, he announced he’d sold his app.
He’d mentioned some gambling app a couple of months before, and even gone out to Las Vegas for it. She’d hadn’t paid much attention, to be honest. She figured he’d earned the right to a trip to Vegas, and if he wanted to dress it up with a work excuse so be it.
But it turned out he wasn’t exaggerating. He’d created an iPhone and Android app called Twenty-One. It charted the best possible plays in blackjack and other games. Simulated versions of the games themselves, too, and fantasy sports betting, all in a simple-to-use format. Then he’d linked the app to the phone’s GPS so casinos could target ads and even message players directly. More than twenty thousand people had already downloaded it. A casino consulting firm in Nevada liked it and wanted it.
“Guess how much they paid.”
What were apps worth? She had no idea. But it turned out the answer was two million dollars.
The money changed everything.
Even after taxes they had well over a million. They set aside a chunk for the kids’ college funds, put most of the rest toward a house. He even bought her a used Steinway. He started working out four days a week. In a year he replaced ten pounds of fat with ten of muscle. She could see the sharp lines of his face, the edge in him that had drawn him to her. Okay, truth, he looked good.
Not to put too fine a point on it, she fell for him again.
She didn’t think the change in her feelings was about the money, or even what the money could buy. Not exactly. The money was proof. Proof that Brian could be a partner. In their marriage,