“You’re jumping to conclusions, Lucinda.”“How else do you explain it?”Penny took a sip of coffee and looked at her.The murky late-night cell...hone calls, the French ticklers, and now Bob’s rendezvous at the Propensa Hotel were all the evidence Lucinda needed. She choked back a sob.“The bastard! Six years of marriage and this? I turn thirty next week, Penny. I don’t want to start over.”“I’m sure it’s all innocent,” Penny said.“Innocent? He’s fucking her, Penny!”“Now, Lucinda. You don’t know. Vee was special. High school bored her to tears. She had been smarter than any of her teachers.A reader, a researcher. It wasn't enough to read a book and accept the author's premise ... she checked his sources.Most thinking is built on work that has gone before. Truly revolutionary ideas are rare, it has been said that there are only 9 original ideas and everything else builds on those nine. And then there were the accidents. Fire and electricity are two natural accidents. The use of iron. Black thick liner would raccoon around his blue eyes, and monstrous fauxtop lashes would almost cause a minor wind storm with him blinkingnervously. Above them, a bronze shimmer at the inner crease would turn tocopper serving as the focal color, delivering a metallic glow. Hints ofwhite silver from the inner edges near his nose would become lighter nearthe bridge before flowing under the thicker inner edges of his reshapedbrows. His mother couldn't help but reach up, touching the dramatic. “Thank you, whoever the fuck you are,” she mused quietly, and then she turned her attention back to her body. Within a few minutes, she had made the desired modifications: a few minor facial changes (mostly to her nose — she didn’t know a woman in existence who wouldn’t change that even slightly), a thinning of her hips, a firming and slight expansion of her ass, a slight darkening of her skin, and the removal of the vast majority of her body hair (which simply disappeared like she had never.