Where had all the time gone? Elinor stood in the middle of her
living room and stared about her. This was what she had to
show for her life. An empty apartment, an empty life. She clasped
one hand over her mouth and her eyes suddenly welled with
hot tears.

How can you say empty, she thought. You have Nigel. You aren't
alone.

But she was, at the end of the day. She always came home to
the emptiness, the silence, the loneliness. She had let time slip
away. She had waited too long. No one can change the past.