Chương 5
“You’re defending soup.”
Linda entered with a bag from the pharmacy.
“What are we fighting about?”
“Soup,” Emily said.
Linda nodded.
“Good. Something normal.”
For the first time since the reception, Emily laughed.
It hurt her ribs.
She stopped and held her side.
Daniel stood automatically.
Emily raised one hand.
“I’m okay.”
He stayed where he was.
That became the first rule he learned.
Ask.
Do not decide.
It was harder than he expected.
Emily slept badly. She woke at small sounds. She checked locks twice, then became angry at herself for checking them. She left her phone face down because incoming calls made her flinch.
Victor did not contact her directly.
His attorney did.
The first message was almost polite.
Victor wished to arrange the return of Emily’s personal belongings and discuss a temporary separation in a manner that protected both parties from unnecessary public exposure.
Emily read it at the kitchen table.
“What does that mean?” Linda asked.
“It means he wants me quiet.”
Daniel said, “Then don’t answer.”
Emily looked at him.
He stopped.
“Sorry.”
She took another minute.
“I need a lawyer.”
Daniel reached for his phone.
“I know someone.”
Emily shook her head.
“I want my own.”
That hurt too.
He let it.
She hired Nina Park, a family-law attorney recommended by a college friend.
Nina was forty-one, wore practical shoes, and did not appear impressed by either the Hale name or Daniel’s fury.
Their first meeting lasted nearly three hours.
Daniel was asked to leave after twenty minutes.
He paced the hallway.
Linda joined him.
“You’re wearing a groove in expensive carpet.”
“He’s paying people to call her unstable.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Victor.”
“No,” Linda said. “We all thought we knew Victor.”
Daniel stopped pacing.
She was right.
That irritated him.
He went for coffee.
The coffee in Nina Park’s building lobby cost seven dollars and tasted burnt.
He drank it anyway.
When Emily came out, she looked exhausted.
“What happens?” Daniel asked.
“A lot of boring paperwork.”
“That’s good?”
“No. It’s paperwork.”
She pressed the elevator button.
“Nina says the marriage complicates things.”
“How much?”
Emily looked at him.
“Dad.”
“Right.”
They rode down in silence.
Outside, a reporter waited near the curb.
Emily froze.
Daniel stepped forward.
Nina caught his arm.
“Don’t.”
The reporter called Emily’s name.
“Emily, did Victor Hale assault you?”
Daniel turned.
Nina tightened her grip.
Emily’s face drained of color.
“Emily, are you seeking money from Mr. Hale?”
Daniel said, “Back off.”
The reporter raised the microphone.
“Mr. Mercer, is your business in default to Hale Capital?”
Emily looked at Daniel.
He had not told her.
The reporter had.
That mistake changed the next month.
In the car, Emily stared straight ahead.
“How much do you owe him?”
“It’s complicated.”
She laughed once.
Daniel heard his own words from the gas station.
Complicated.
He winced.
“Four million originally. Less now.”
“How much less?”
“About three-point-two.”
Emily turned toward him.
“And he can call it?”
“Not exactly.”
“Can he?”
“Yes.”
Linda drove.
Nobody spoke for three traffic lights.
Emily said, “Did you take money from him because of me?”
“No.”
“Dad.”
“I took it because my company needed money.”
“You wouldn’t have taken it if I wasn’t with him.”
Daniel looked out the window.
That was harder.
“I don’t know.”
Emily leaned back.
“You should have told me.”
“I didn’t want you to think—”
“What?”
“That you owed me something.”
She stared at him.
“He knew.”
Daniel said nothing.
“He knew you’d never tell me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Emily wiped beneath her good eye.
“So when he said you couldn’t save your company, that wasn’t just him being cruel.”
“No.”
“It was true.”
“Yes.”
She nodded slowly.
Then she said, “I need you to stop protecting me with information.”
Daniel looked at her.
“If it affects me, I want to know.”
“Okay.”
“You say okay and then decide what counts.”
He almost defended himself.
Instead he said, “I’ll try not to.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“It’s more accurate.”
Emily looked out her window.
After a moment she said, “Fine.”
It was not forgiveness.
It was a beginning.
The police investigation moved slowly enough to drive Daniel insane.
Officers interviewed more than forty people from the reception. Some had seen Victor grab Emily’s wrist. Some had seen nothing. Three remembered Emily throwing a drink earlier, which had not happened. One insisted Daniel had threatened to kill Victor, though video from another guest contradicted him.
Memory turned out to be terrible evidence when one hundred frightened people tried to reconstruct thirty seconds.
Victor’s attorney released a statement describing the incident as “a painful private marital dispute distorted by selective recordings and public speculation.”
No one named Emily.
Everyone knew.
Victor did not return to the estate after questioning.
He stayed at a downtown hotel owned by a business associate.
Two days later, photographs appeared online of scratches on Victor’s wrist.
A commentator called them “defensive wounds.”
Emily saw the headline while eating cereal.
She put down the spoon.
“I did that.”
Linda sat across from her.
“Yes.”
“What if they believe him?”
“Some will.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
He wanted to tell her nobody who mattered would believe Victor.
That would have been a lie.
“Some will,” he said.
She stared at him, surprised.
He continued.
“You scratched him. You told the police you scratched him. That doesn’t erase what happened before or after. But I’m not going to pretend the parts I don’t like aren’t there.”
Emily looked down at her cereal.
“Thank you.”
Daniel did not feel thanked.
He felt frightened.
Three days later, Victor’s lawyers sent the first settlement proposal.
Victor would agree to a rapid divorce.
Emily would receive two million dollars.
Her personal belongings would be returned.
Each side would issue no public statements about the relationship.
Neither would disparage the other.
May you like
The agreement would not affect any independent law-enforcement investigation, but Emily would decline voluntary media participation and avoid civil litigation.
There was a separate letter.
