Alexander claimed it was an essential logistical move, a necessary "site visit" to a property in Westchester to establish an official, documented reason for our continued absence from the Hamptons. But as we drove north, away from the glittering, high-rise sanctuary of the penthouse, I knew it was something more personal, something rooted in the past he kept so fiercely locked away.

He hadn't touched me since we left the penthouse, yet his presence beside me in the back of the town car was ...