The Age of Reinvention Read Online Free Page B

with the permanent fear of losing her. You see and you understand that a man can take her from you at any time; many men have the desire to do it, and perhaps the means too: charm, humor, wealth, whatever . . . The fact is, he can take your place. In a matter of months, weeks, hours, he can steal the place you have managed to keep through pity, intimidation, and blackmail, the place that is constantly under threat due to your repeated failures. You are sitting on an ejector seat, and you must use all your charm/cunning/negotiating skills to stay there. You walk, always, on the edge of an abyss. You never feel secure. Even in bed with her, you worry you are not up to the task. You go to bed in a state of anxiety, you sleep uneasily, and you wake up with your stomach in knots. Being married to a woman like this is like driving an armored truck containing millions of dollars in cash while running a high fever: Concentrate! There are bank robbers lurking in the shadows, everywhere, waiting to shoot you in the head so they can make off with the loot. What you have, they want—and more intensely, more powerfully than you do, because as yet they have never touched it, never possessed it; they don’t know what it is to have a woman as beautiful as that. If she were a spy, she could obtain state secrets simply by laying her head on a pillow. But she is not aware of her power. Whenever she enters a room, she slouches slightly, lowers her eyes . . . and yet it makes no difference: she still lights up every corner, hardens every prick, and this is what terrifies Samuel: losing her . . . (And he is losing her, he can feel it, so why does he suggest to her, as soon as they have switched off the television, that they do some research on Samir?) Get the laptop—let’s see what we can find on him . And now here they are, sitting next to each other, eyes fixed on the screen like two students cramming for an exam. Samuel googles the words “Samir Tahar” and reads the following question: Did you mean: Sam Tahar? Within seconds, dozens of links appear on the screen—professional contact details, interviews, references to current legal cases. No Facebook or Twitter profiles.
    He clicks on each link, prints each document. He discovers that Samir got his master’s in criminal law from the University of Montpellier and joined the firm Lévy et Queffélec, where he worked for two years before taking over the branch they opened in New York. Samuel googles Levy, Berman and Associates . Having passed the bar exams in Paris and New York, Samir made his name representing an American firefighter who was seriously burned while rescuing victims of the Twin Towers attack, and two families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. His name is also often mentioned in relation to lawsuits brought by feminist groups; in fact, he has represented several gang-rape victims. He also learns that Samir is married to Ruth Berg, the daughter of Rahm Berg.
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    On Wikipedia, he finds this article:
    Born in Jerusalem on May 4, 1945, Rahm Berg is an American businessman, former president of the RBA Group, listed on the Fortune Global 100. He is also one of the world’s biggest collectors of modern and contemporary art.
    His first name, Rahm, means “high” or “lofty” in Hebrew. His mother, Rebecca Weiss, is descended from a long line of ultra-Orthodox rabbis. His father, Abraham Berg, born in Jerusalem, is a former member of Irgun, a paramilitary Zionist group active in Palestine and then in Israel between 1931 and 1948. He emigrated to the United States with his family in the late 1950s.
    Rahm Berg is a fervent supporter of the “Jewish cause” and of Israel. He has financed several artistic projects and, in particular, one major exhibition entitled “Guilty Silence” at the Somerset House gallery in London.
    When he types “Sam Tahar” into Google, he notices something he