Rose stood in Helen's modified living room watching the nurse help her sister-in-law transfer from wheelchair to recliner, observing how Helen's left side hung completely useless and how her face drooped on one side in permanent testament to the stroke that had stolen her physical autonomy.

The image haunted Rose more than she could articulate, seeing the woman who'd been her partner in deception for thirty-one years reduced to dependency and disability, and as the days passed following ...