Chương 8
“It sounds like it.”
“I’m defending what I know.”
Daniel opened his mouth.
Emily stood.
“I spent two years being told what I remembered. By Victor. By you sometimes. By people online now. I am not replacing his version with yours just because yours loves me more.”
Daniel felt anger rise.
Then something behind it.
Shame.
He sat.
“You’re right.”
Emily was breathing hard.
“I hate when you say that so fast.”
“What?”
“You’re right.”
“I thought that’s what I’m supposed to say when you’re right.”
“It feels like you’re trying to end the argument.”
Daniel considered this.
“I am trying to end the argument.”
“I know.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“So what do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“I’m not a customer-service department.”
Daniel stared at her.
Nina Park looked between them.
“I’m billing both of you for this minute.”
Emily laughed.
Daniel did too.
Nina did not.
“I’m serious.”
The tension broke just enough.
Daniel leaned back.
“Fine. He turned off the cameras. That means what it means.”
Emily nodded.
“That’s all I’m asking.”
The first major court hearing related to the divorce took place in October.
Victor attended.
It was the first time Emily had seen him since the reception.
Daniel sat behind her.
Victor entered with two attorneys and an assistant carrying files.
He wore a navy suit.
For several minutes he did not look toward Emily.
Then he did.
The effect on her was immediate.
Her shoulders tightened.
Her fingers went cold.
Daniel saw it.
He wanted to place a hand on her back.
He did not.
Emily took one slow breath.
Then another.
Nina leaned close and said something Daniel could not hear.
Emily nodded.
The hearing concerned temporary financial arrangements and access to marital property.
It was procedural.
Boring, mostly.
Daniel had expected to hate Victor every second.
Instead, at one point, Victor dropped a pen.
It rolled beneath the table.
He bent awkwardly to retrieve it.
For a brief instant he looked ordinary.
A man under fluorescent lights trying to reach a pen.
Daniel found this disturbing.
It was easier when monsters looked like monsters.
Afterward, Victor approached Emily in the hallway while both legal teams were present.
He stopped several feet away.
“Can I say something?”
Nina said, “No.”
Emily said, “What?”
Nina looked at her.
Emily gave a small nod.
Victor’s face was thinner.
“I’m sorry this has become what it has.”
Daniel felt his hands close.
Emily said, “What has it become?”
Victor swallowed.
“This.”
He gestured toward the hallway.
Lawyers. Security. Strangers.
Emily waited.
Victor said, “We hurt each other.”
“No.”
His expression changed.
Barely.
“You hit me too.”
“I defended myself.”
“You threw a glass at my head.”
“At the wall.”
“It shattered six inches from me.”
Emily looked at him.
“You were blocking the door.”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“You know what you’re doing, Emily.”
Daniel stepped forward.
Nina immediately raised a hand.
Emily did not look back at Daniel.
“What am I doing?”
“Turning one terrible afternoon into a story where the previous two years never happened.”
Emily’s face went pale.
Victor continued.
“I loved you.”
She said nothing.
“I still do.”
Daniel almost moved.
Linda caught his jacket sleeve.
Victor looked genuinely miserable.
That was the worst part.
Emily stared at him for several seconds.
Then she said, “You keep saying love like it changes what you did.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“I’m saying what you did matters too.”
“It does.”
He seemed surprised.
Emily continued.
“I lied to you. I hid a suitcase. I recorded you. I slapped you. I threw the glass. I scratched you. I stayed when I should have left. I told people I was fine when I wasn’t. All of that matters.”
Victor watched her.
Emily’s voice shook now.
“But none of it makes your hand belong on my throat.”
The hallway went still.
Daniel had not known about the throat.
Victor’s face changed.
Emily saw Daniel’s reaction and closed her eyes briefly.
There it was.
Another piece she had not told him.
Not because she had forgotten.
Because she had not been able to tell him everything at once.
Victor said, “That isn’t what happened.”
Emily opened her eyes.
“It is.”
He looked toward Daniel.
That was a mistake.
Daniel took one step.
Linda pulled him back.
Nina said, “This conversation is over.”
Emily turned away first.
In the elevator, Daniel stared at the floor numbers.
Six.
Five.
Four.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Emily closed her eyes.
Linda looked at him.
Daniel heard himself.
He stopped.
“Sorry.”
The elevator reached the lobby.
Emily walked out.
Daniel followed.
Outside, leaves scraped along the sidewalk.
Emily sat on a bench.
Daniel remained standing until she looked at him.
“I couldn’t say it,” she said.
He nodded.
“That’s all.”
“Okay.”
“I’m going to tell the detectives.”
“Okay.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Okay.”
Daniel sat beside her.
“What should I say?”
“I don’t know.”
He nodded.
Then, because she had asked him to stop ending difficult things with quick answers, he waited.
After almost a minute, he said, “I wish you hadn’t had to carry that by yourself.”
Emily looked at him.
“That’s better.”
The additional allegation did not magically strengthen the investigation.
It created questions.
Why had Emily omitted it earlier?
Was her memory changing?
Nina warned her that Victor’s defense would use the delay.
Emily nearly refused to add it formally.
Then she did.
“I’m not going to edit what happened so I look more consistent,” she told Nina.
Daniel heard about that later and felt something he did not name as pride because pride seemed too possessive.
By November, Mercer Restoration had entered a formal restructuring process.
Daniel lost the warehouse.
A larger regional contractor agreed to buy several active projects and keep nineteen employees.
May you like
The deal covered enough debt to avoid personal bankruptcy, but Daniel’s ownership stake was effectively gone.
He sat in the empty office on the final Friday before the sale closed.
