The Wife Abandoned in the Dark

Talia Lassiter closed her family's inn eight years ago because Seth promised they would reopen it once his firm settled down, and the keys have stayed on her ring ever since.

For seven weeks he has given most of his evenings, his confidences, and the part of himself that used to be his wife's to the woman who runs his deal team, though he has never slept with her.

An ice storm cuts the county's power for five nights, the generator dies, and the woman he trusts to check on Talia reports that his wife is fine; it is a lie, and Seth never goes to look.

On the third night Talia walks two miles through the dark for kerosene, sees them easy and warm across a restaurant table, and is found near dawn in hypothermia.

She wakes in the hospital and does not go home, unlocking the Tierney House instead to feed the village through the outage and straight into spring, until the whole county eats in her dining room.

Seth is outside at five every morning, but the wife he wants now has a full house, a business of her own, and a life that no longer depends on him.