King of Greed

“Once upon a time, I’d loved my husband. His beauty, his ambition, his intelligence. The wildflowers he’d plucked for me on his way home from a graveyard shift, and the gentle kisses he’d trailed over my shoulder when I stubbornly refused to heed my alarm clock. But once upon a time was a long time ago, and now, as I watched him walk through the door for the first time in weeks, all I felt was a deep, dull ache in the places where love once resided.”

From the start of the novel, there is already something fundamentally broken in Alessandra and Dominic’s marriage. This passage indicates that a deep chasm, both physical and emotional, exists between them, and this rift cannot be bridged unless both protagonists work on creating meaningful change in their lives.

“I’d put up with dozens of missed dates, canceled trips, and broken promises over the years, but our ten-year wedding anniversary was one of a kind. It was unmissable.”

In this passage, Alessandra emphasizes the importance of their wedding anniversary, and it is clear that if Dominic fails to prioritize it as she does, then their relationship may be irreparably damaged. This scene also foreshadows the fact that Dominic will forget this event due to his focus on work, and this lapse becomes a breaking point in their marriage, prompting Alessandra to demand a divorce.

“It was the first night I’d been awake to see Dominic come home in weeks, and our conversation had ended before it really began. I blinked back an embarrassing sting of tears. So what if my husband felt like a stranger? I felt like a stranger to myself sometimes when I looked in the mirror. At the end of the day, I was married to one of the richest men on Wall Street, I lived in a beautiful house most people would kill for, and I owned a small but thriving business doing what I loved. I had no good reason to cry.”

This particular passage is thick with Alessandra’s ineffectual attempts to rationalize her current lifestyle and explain away her nagging sense of frustration and dissatisfaction. Despite the couple’s social and financial standing, there is an emotional distance between Alessandra and Dominic that hurts her more than anything else. She states that she is a woman who needs emotional connection before she pursues sexual activities or other intimate relationships. Without emotional intimacy, she sees nothing of value to preserve in her marriage.