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“What is this?” he asked.

“It’s the surprise. I’m going to be able to pay you back. I just wanted you to know.”

“I told you it was a gift.”

“I know, but I want to pay you back.” Max looked at the check and tore it up.

“I don’t want the fucking money back. It’s yours. You don’t return a gift. That’s rude.”

“Max, it was too much money. I’m doing well now; I want to pay you back.”

“I don’t want it back! Give it to that old fuck you work with. It will be that much less he’ll steal from us!” Max was on something. His temper was too short and he looked irritated. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked to her car. She had a terrible knot in her stomach.

When Kathy got home there was a message from him. She always thought Max acted phony on his messages. Some people forgot they were being recorded and were just natural and other people acted for the camera. Max always seemed so theatrical whenever his face appeared on her screen. “Hey,” he said. “Sorry if I was rude, but I really don’t want the money back. It was a gift and let’s leave it at that. I’m also going out of town for a few days and I’ll see you when I get back. Take care.”

And that was it. No “I love you” or any other salutations, just “take care.” Kathy played it back, zooming in on his eyes. His pupils were like saucers. He was loaded. Some sort of speedy cocktail. She had noticed this months earlier, but before she could say anything, it stopped. Now it was back. These friends of his were obviously bad influences.

Kathy was tempted to get him on the screen and have it out at that very moment, but she didn’t. This had been her best day at work and she didn’t want to ruin it by having a big argument. She erased his message—she never liked to keep messages, anyway—and decided to treat herself to a bath and a glass of wine. She would make an effort to keep the good part of her day going as long as she could.

* * *

Laura Markum was now officially Laura Li. Over the decades women had vacillated between keeping their name or using their husband’s name, or using some combination of both. But she didn’t like Laura Markum-Li; she didn’t like hyphenates, for one, and she had another reason. She thought her husband was capable of almost anything and that it would only help him to have a world-class American dame by his side, and with a Chinese last name at that. “Confuse ’em all,” she would say.

Laura was a born producer. She was known as a brilliant prosecutor, but what gave her the most pleasure was pulling strings behind the scenes and watching the results. She had always been attractive and had a strong ego, so she wasn’t looking for public validation. When she watched her father in the Senate she saw how some of the senators were always in front of the camera and others stayed in the background, but the ones in the background seemed to have all the power. That was who she wanted to be.

Li, on the other hand, loved the limelight. He loved the fame he gained in China and loved it even more in America. He thought that the more people knew his name, the easier it would be to get his ideas across. And Laura agreed. The first thing she did was to increase the number of his speaking engagements and also to raise his fee.

It was Laura herself who called Paul Prescott and suggested her husband be the key speaker at the big AARP winter meeting. It was going to be in Florida, and was the biggest event they held all year.

“I’m sorry, the vice president is already booked,” Paul said.

“Shen will have a greater impact on these people. He will address their health concerns directly, and you can’t tell me that any of them are not dying, excuse the pun, to know how Los Angeles is reshaping their lives.” Paul thought a moment.

“May I get back to you?”

“Quickly. We have more offers during that time period than we can even consider. My husband would rather speak to the Economic Forum but this is my idea. I think AARP needs to hear what he has to say.”

“I’ll get back to you no later than tomorrow.”

“I will hear from you then.” Laura disconnected.