Now and Forever

Now and Forever is an early standalone novel by Danielle Steel, first published in 1978.

Jessica and Ian Clarke have been married seven years and still insist nothing has dimmed. At Jessica's urging Ian left advertising to write, and her successful San Francisco boutique keeps them both. The dependence wears on him more than he will say, and one bored, careless indiscretion becomes the worst thing that has ever happened to either of them: the woman accuses him of rape, and Ian is arrested.

What follows is the trial and its aftermath, and the slow accounting of what a marriage can carry. Jessica has to keep the shop, keep herself, and decide what she owes a husband whose one foolish act cost them the life they had made. The novel draws, at a distance, on Steel's own first marriage, and is quieter and more domestic than the sagas she became known for.