The Missing Piece

Order. Purpose. Predictability.

Dr. Renee Lawler organizes her life around those principles, and rarely does she stray from them. After all, they’ve brought her this far in life, where she enjoys her role as English department chair at a small but reputable New England university. Renee very much appreciates that her academic reputation instills sparks of fear in students’ hearts.

If there’s room in her heart for anything more than literature and controlling those around her—Renee hasn’t allo...