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On the flight between Rome and Paris, Spencer thought about her semi-final match in the Foro Italico. It was brutal, each player not giving an inch for the opponent to capitalize. In the end, Serena had won through sheer brute force. After the match Spencer had been too exhausted from more than two hours of unrelenting competition to react. She could remember Madison hugging her, the crowd cheering. She could remember the glare of flashbulbs in her face and the barrage of questions she had forced herself to answer before she all but collapsed on the massage table.

Now, as the plane leveled, reaction set in. She’d lost the match but she knew she’d done it. For all of her professional career, the Italian clay had always been her weakness. Now—now her comeback was viable. Even though she had not won the Foro Italico, she had proven herself. Every hour of strain, every moment of physical pain during the last six months of training had been worth it.

At last Spencer could rid herself of all the lingering doubts that she had made the right decision. Though there had been no doubts about her choice to leave Eric, she mused, feeling little emotion at the dissolution of her marriage—a marriage, Spencer remembered, that had been no more than a polite play after the first two months. If she had ever made a truly unforgivable mistake, it had been in marrying Lord Eric Middleton.

All the wrong reasons, Spencer reflected as she leaned back in her seat with her eyes closed. Even with her bitter thoughts of Eric, she could never remove the feeling of responsibility for taking the step that had legally bound them. He had known she hadn’t loved him. It hadn’t mattered to him. She had known he wanted her to fit the title of Lady. She hadn’t cared. At the time the need to escape had been too overpowering. Spencer had given Eric what he had wanted—a groomed, attractive wife and hostess. She had thought he would give her what she needed in return. Love and understanding. The reality had been much, much different, and almost as painful as what she had sought to escape.