Wattys shortlist 2021. One morning the sun rises a few hours early, striking levitating skyscrapers in Soliara ahead of schedule. People in the streets stop to look up at the sky and then down at their watches. Most of them, puzzled but disbelieving...
A knock on the door disturbed Tony Solari as soon as he settled back into work. He hadn't expected to be productive today. He looked around his spacious yet empty office maybe for a place to hide, even considering for a second taking a link home, but it was no use. It would only delay the inevitable.
"Come in," he said, sounding very busy.
His door let in Candra Satiri. Tony shuffled the papers on his desk as if he were occupied. She walked right in as the door closed itself and she took a seat. Without saying anything, she dropped a file on Tony's desk and settled in to regard him. Tony put down his papers and regarded her with a crinkle of distaste that was quite intentional.
When Tony didn't move, Candra chimed in with a strange mix of malice and cheerfulness. "What, aren't you curious?" she asked.
Tony didn't allow himself to glance down at the file. "I think I know what that is. Someone already beat you to it."
"I think you're going to be surprised. It's not what you think it is. Promise."
Unimpressed, Tony slid the file back across the desk. Candra just laughed and said, "I don't know what they have on you, what you did or what you're going to do, but Tony, trust me. This is better. It's what you're not going to do. I've been paying attention since our last meeting, and they can't have been studying you like I have. I know what you would die for, and I know what you would kill for, let alone play my game and do me this small favor that I keep asking. Such a small price to pay." She pushed the file back toward Tony.
"If you say so," said Tony, and he picked it up. He prepared a blank poker face and fumbled with the opening, but he lost it when he saw the photographs that had fallen out into his hand, letting Candra quite easily see his confusion.
What he expected to find was evidence of the affair Alma Valerian had accused him of over lunch.
What he found instead were pictures of his Cordelia on a moonlit night standing out on a patio deck in the arms of another man. She gazed longingly into the stranger's eyes. The next photo, a kiss. The last, the enamored couple leaving the patio to go inside. The man's hand was on the small of her back.
Tony tossed the photographs down and stood right up. "I don't understand," he said. He snarled, really. Everything depended on the act. "Are you suggesting that my wife is having an affair? And I'm supposed to what — help you? Out of gratitude that you showed me?"
Candra shook her head. "If I didn't know you so well, I would expect you to repay this gift with a small act of loyalty, but as I said — I have watched you, Tony. I didn't reveal your wife's affair to you. You already knew."
Tony let himself erupt at the accusation. "How dare you? I have to go home tonight to a wife who has been unfaithful to me. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it, but I have a few ideas."
"You won't," Candra called his bluff. "You've kept this to yourself for months, but you knew. You haven't confronted dearest Cordelia. You're trying desperately to keep your marriage together. That's why you've become the perfect family man. You've been a good father and husband ever since you found out you weren't enough for Cordelia, and you're not about to give that up now. You don't want anything to change — you don't want to do the hard thing. You're going to want to keep this to yourself and suffer alone."
"You're going to destroy my marriage?"
"No. Not yet, anyway. But if Justin Marius isn't president of the Constellation company by tomorrow, I will."
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