"She can hold anything against me," Ben said tensely, but immediately regretted it. He hadn't really meant it the way that it had sounded. He'd meant that Melody had every right to be upset with him, if she wanted to be, because he hadn't exactly been the most upstanding husband for the past year and at times he thought he'd ruined her life, or at least made her momentarily pretty miserable. What it sounded like, though, was a referendum on Melody, and how controlling and domineering and insane she was — which fit right in with what Art already thought, so of course that was how he was going to take it.

Feeling suddenly very tired, Ben leaned his elbow on his desk and rested his forehead against his knuckles. He was staring vaguely at the magazine, though he had no further desire to read it. "I'm going to try and get her to a healer," he announced wearily.