Chương 9
Margaret’s face tightened.
“You want me to feel sympathy for her?”
“I want everyone to stop deciding things for five minutes.”
Margaret looked toward Emma’s bedroom.
“She slept with your husband.”
“Yes.”
“She helped him hide it.”
“Yes.”
“She watched him close a door on Emma.”
Rachel froze.
“You don’t know that.”
“The video—”
“You didn’t see it.”
“I saw the clip online.”
“No. You saw the part somebody posted.”
Margaret went silent.
Rachel realized she was defending Claire.
The realization made her nauseous.
Margaret picked up the knife.
“You always did this.”
“Did what?”
“Made room for everybody else until there was nowhere left for you.”
Rachel laughed sharply.
“That is not what’s happening.”
“Maybe.”
“Please don’t psychoanalyze me while making carrots.”
“They’re celery.”
Rachel looked.
They were celery.
For some reason that ended the argument.
Two days later, Rachel agreed to meet Claire.
Not alone.
Lena attended.
Claire brought her attorney, a nervous man named Feldman who kept adjusting his glasses.
They met in a private conference room.
Claire wore black instead of cream.
Rachel resented that she noticed.
Claire looked thinner.
No makeup.
She sat with both hands clasped around a paper coffee cup.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Claire said, “I’m sorry.”
Rachel leaned back.
Lena glanced at her but did not intervene.
Rachel said, “For which part?”
Claire looked down.
“All of it.”
“That’s efficient.”
Feldman shifted.
Claire ignored him.
“The affair started in March.”
Rachel had suspected January.
The correction hurt in an unexpected direction.
“Where?”
Claire looked up.
“Does that matter?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“A conference in Austin.”
Daniel had called Rachel from Austin every night.
He had complained about the hotel pillows.
Rachel remembered sending him a photograph of Emma asleep wearing his sweatshirt.
“What did he tell you about me?”
Claire’s attorney said, “I’m not sure this conversation—”
Claire touched his arm.
“He said you were separated emotionally.”
Rachel laughed once.
Claire continued.
“He said you had talked about divorce.”
“We had not.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because after the rooftop I started questioning things he’d said.”
“That took a drowning.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Rachel had expected denial.
The simple answer left her nowhere to put the next attack.
She folded her arms.
“What happened in the cabana?”
Claire’s fingers tightened around the cup.
“We were arguing.”
“About me finding out?”
“Yes.”
“Why that night?”
“I told him I was done.”
Rachel blinked.
Claire looked miserable.
“I had been asking him for months what he was going to do. He kept saying after the acquisition. Then after a board meeting. Then after Emma started school. There was always something.”
Rachel almost laughed.
That sounded like Daniel.
Claire continued.
“I told him I wasn’t going to keep doing it.”
“So noble.”
“I’m not asking you to think that.”
“Good.”
“He said you were on your way up with the cake.”
“How did he know?”
“He could see your location.”
Rachel’s stomach tightened.
They had family location sharing enabled for Emma.
Daniel must have been watching Rachel’s dot move through the building.
Claire said, “He panicked.”
“And then Emma knocked.”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Claire’s face changed.
“She asked for her shoes.”
Rachel looked at the wall.
“Daniel opened the door?”
“A little.”
“And?”
“He told her to find you.”
“Was your zipper down?”
Claire went very still.
Feldman said, “Ms. Bennett—”
“Was it?”
Claire looked at Rachel.
“Yes.”
Rachel nodded.
There were some answers that did not become worse because they were explicit.
They simply became finished.
“What happened after Daniel closed the door?”
Claire took a breath.
“I told him to open it.”
Rachel looked at her.
“What?”
“I told him she was upset.”
“Did you open it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I was afraid she’d see me.”
“She already saw you.”
“I know.”
“You were afraid a six-year-old would understand you were sleeping with her father.”
“I was ashamed.”
“Apparently shame is very popular.”
Claire looked down.
Rachel heard Lena shift beside her.
“Then Emma walked away,” Claire said. “Daniel said we had to get downstairs separately. We heard a splash.”
Rachel’s throat tightened.
“You heard it too.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I looked toward the pool, but the glass was fogged and raining. Daniel said people were swimming.”
“Nobody was swimming. There was lightning.”
“I know.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
The room stayed silent.
Claire whispered, “For a few seconds, nothing.”
Rachel felt something inside her becoming dangerously calm.
“Then someone yelled?”
“Yes.”
“What did Daniel do?”
Claire looked at Feldman.
He said, “You can answer.”
“He grabbed my arm.”
Rachel waited.
“He said, ‘We have to go.’”
“Before checking the pool.”
“Yes.”
Rachel’s hands were cold.
“Why did you go with him?”
Claire began crying.
Not loudly.
She wiped beneath one eye with her thumb.
“I wish I had an answer that didn’t make me hate myself.”
Rachel looked at her.
Claire breathed in.
“I went because I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of you.”
The honesty shocked her.
Claire continued before Rachel could answer.
“Of people seeing us. Of my job. Of being the woman at the party with a married man. Of losing everything over something I already knew was terrible.”
Rachel’s voice came out low.
“So you ran.”
“Yes.”
“How far?”
“To the service corridor.”
“And then?”
“Daniel heard somebody say Emma’s name.”
Rachel went still.
“He stopped.”
“He did?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He turned around.”
This was not on the video Rachel had seen.
Claire said, “I kept going.”
Rachel stared.
“I got to the stairs. I went down one level. Then I stopped.”
“Why?”
“I heard sirens.”
“That fast?”
“Building security had already called.”
Claire rubbed her hands together.
“I stood in a stairwell for maybe a minute. Maybe less. Then I thought—”
She stopped.
May you like
“What?”
“I thought if Emma died, the last thing I would have done was run away because I didn’t want anyone to know I was sleeping with her father.”
