'Nope,' Rosie said, 'by the time I saw Rose Madder UGG Boots Clearance on the back, I already knew I wanted the painting.' She smiled. 'It was just a coincidence, I guess-the kind that isn't allowed in the romance novels you like.'
     　　'I see.' But Anna didn't look as if she did, quite. She ran the ball of her thumb across the printed letters. They smudged easily.
     　　'Yes,' Rose said. Suddenly, for no reason at all, she felt very uneasy. It was as if, somewhere off in that other timezone where evening had already begun, a man was thinking Jordan Heels of her. 'After all, Rose is a fairly common name-not like Evangeline or Petronella.'
     　　'I suppose you're right.' Anna handed the picture over to her. 'But it's funny about the charcoal it's written in, just the same.'
     　　'Funny how?'
     　　'Charcoal smudges so easily. If it isn't protected-and the words on the backing of your picture haven't been-it turns into nothing but a smear in no time. The words Rose Madder must have been printed on the backing recently. But why? The picture itself doesn't look recent; it Louis Vuitton bags outlet must be at least forty years old, and it might be eighty or a hundred. There's something else odd about it, too.'
     　　'No artist's signature,' Anna said.
     The Manta Ray
     　　Norman left his hometown on Sunday, the day before Rosie was scheduled to start her new job . . . the job she was still not entirely sure she could do. He left on the 11:05 Continental Express bus. This wasn't a matter of economy; it was a matter-a vital matter-of slipping back inside jordan heels Rose's head. Norman was still not able to admit how badly her totally unexpected flight had rocked him. He tried to tell himself he was upset because of the bank card-only that and nothing more-but his heart knew better. It was about how he'd never had a clue. Not so much as a premonition.
     　　There had been a long time in their marriage when he had known her every waking thought and most of her dreams. The fact that that had changed was driving him cheap Chanel bags nuts. His biggest fear-unacknowledged but not entirely hidden from the deeper run of his thoughts-was that she had been planning her escape for weeks, months, possibly even a year. If he had known the truth of how and why she had left (if he had known about the single drop of blood, in other words), he would perhaps have been comforted. Or perhaps he would have been more unsettled than ever.