Elena left for work at 6:40 most mornings. She had a friend named Donna she met regularly.
On Tuesday mornings, when she wasn’t working, she often went to Riverside Mall. Victor read the report in his office with the door closed and the blinds angled so nobody could see him from the corridor.
Riverside Mall, Tuesday mornings. He put the report in his desk drawer and locked it.
He told himself he hadn’t decided anything yet. He told himself he was just gathering information, just keeping tabs, just staying informed about someone who had once been a significant part of his life.
That was all. But even as he told himself this, he was already choosing his clothes for Tuesday.
The morning of the mall, Victor woke early. He showered carefully, shaved close, put on a shirt he knew looked good on him, dark blue, just casual enough not to look like he was trying.
He checked his reflection for a long moment before leaving, turning slightly to the side, adjusting the collar.
He looked like a man who had come from somewhere important and was on his way somewhere important.
He looked, as he always looked, like a man in complete control of everything around him.
He got in his Porsche and drove across the city. He told himself as he drove that he only wanted to talk to her.
That was all. Just to see her face in person. Just to remind her and himself that he still existed.
That she hadn’t erased him simply by leaving. That a woman didn’t just walk away from Victor Garcia and build a whole new life and leave him with nothing while she got everything.
He just wanted to talk. But Victor Garcia had never in his life just wanted to talk.
Riverside Mall on a Tuesday morning was busy but not overwhelming. Families with strollers. Elderly couples walking the lower level for exercise.
Groups of teenagers drifting between stores with nowhere specific to be. Victor arrived at 10:55 and parked on the upper level of the garage.
He took his time walking in, hands in his pockets, eyes moving carefully. He knew how to scan a space without looking like he was scanning it.
He had learned that in business, how to assess a room, how to find what you were looking for without telegraphing the search.
He found her on the ground floor, outside a store called Little Wonders. She was standing in front of the window display, slightly angled toward the glass, looking at something inside.
