Love and Hate Are Too Luxurious

Sent to a cell for two years by his own wife, Paul changed his name and fled the country the moment he was free. Seven years later he returns to lay flowers at his sister Amelia's grave, and finds Linda waiting there, the woman who once swore to be Amelia's best friend forever. She claims she has searched for him for years and that she had no choice in what happened.

Paul cannot forgive her. He believes she orchestrated Amelia's death, stole her husband Leo, and drove him to ruin. Yet Linda trails him from the cemetery to the old apartment, bearing years of saved birthday gifts and an old tenderness he refuses. Leo arrives too, and the three stand among the dust of the family they once swore would never be separated.

Paul has come home only to tell his sister he is getting married. Love and hate, he decides, are luxuries he can no longer afford.