The dinner party with Chen and Rebecca was scheduled for Saturday evening, giving Louis three days to prepare their brownstone for guests and finish her pharmaceutical investigation piece. Maya was at preschool, Ral was consulting with clients via video conference, and Louis had finally achieved the elusive state of productive focus when the doorbell rang.
She ignored it initially—package deliveries could wait, solicitors could be dismissed, nothing was urgent enough to interrupt the paragraph she was crafting about regulatory capture and corporate malfeasance.
The doorbell rang again. Insistent. Prolonged.
Louis saved her document with journalist's paranoia about losing work, then descended the stairs with irritation she planned to direct at whoever was interrupting her momentum. She c
