He had his arms crossed over his chest, staring blankly into the distance as he waited for his coffee. His mind churned with thoughts of how he could persuade Perdita to release some kind of statement. The fact that she occupied so much space in his thoughts bothered him—far too much, he realized, to be healthy. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake her accusations.

She had called him abusive. The memory of that conversation still stung. He had recently ...