Herb McRay, a builder, goes online to publish his wife's illustrated children's books — incognito.

"I thought ahead, all the way to the last chapter. My fantasy did not culminate in a denouement when my brilliant, loving deed could berevealed to Suzanne; when we could laugh about it. An act of love of the purest kind: Suzanne must never know the act had been committed, let alone by whom.

"What I felt wasn't a spiritual, uplifting sort of decisiveness; it was a dark determination. Once I started lining those bricks up and stacking them, there would be no moving them. They would build a windowless, doorless wall of dishonesty between myself and Suzanne for the first time.