The Autumn Gale

In late October, when Serena was thirty-six weeks pregnant, a powerful nor'easter swept across the Hudson Valley. Sixty-mile-an-hour winds whipped through the pines, and sheets of torrential rain battered the cedar-and-fieldstone manor, knocking out municipal power grids across Dutchess County. Inside the estate, the industrial generators engaged instantly, keeping the interior warm, bright, and insulated from the storm. Damian sat on the hearth rug in front of the roaring stone…