" pursue a career in business or law. She became a professor of French literature at the Sorbonne, and was the classic bourgeois wife, from a respectable family. He had thought she was the right choice for his career, but she proved to be a lackluster wife and constantly complained. When he was offered an opportunity in the Ministry of the Interior, he was sorely tempted. It sounded exciting to him, with numerous perks, none of which appealed to Alice. He took the job anyway, and she had been unhappy ever since. She had continued teaching at the Sorbonne and their lives had become increasingly separate over the years. They had nothing in common, and their marriage was a habit neither of them had the courage to break, and it looked better for his job if he was married. Their two children, Marina and Damien, were born during the early days of his career. He worked long hours on matters he couldn’t discuss with Alice and he hardly saw his children. But in time his family gave him the perfect cover for the secret life he had only dreamed of, and eventually began to indulge in. Alice and his children never knew. No one he knew did. At first his sexual encounters with men were occasional, but "

― Danielle Steel , Complications