Chương 5
He turned. “Because it’s true.”
“You said it when your wife called during dinner in Napa.”
Eleanor’s throat tightened. “Napa?”
Vanessa looked at her, regret arriving too late.
“When?” Eleanor asked.
David said, “This is pointless.”
“When?”
Vanessa sat on the edge of the bed. “September.”
Eleanor counted backward. In September, David had said he was in California negotiating with a hotel owner whose wife had cancer. Eleanor had sent flowers.
“Was there a hotel owner?” she asked.
Vanessa rubbed her thumb against the side of her hand. “There were vineyards.”
Eleanor looked away.
The city lights blurred, then sharpened again.
She had imagined this confrontation during the flight. In every version she was immaculate, devastating, immune. Vanessa would be vulgar or cruel, David would confess, Teresa would finally apologize. No version had included the flowers.
Martin put down the water bottle.
“What happens now?” he asked Eleanor.
David answered before she could. “Nothing happens now. We get some sleep. We speak to counsel in the morning. Eleanor reverses the holds before she creates a liquidity issue for the company.”
“The holds are only on your authority and cards,” Eleanor said. “The company is operating normally.”
“My expenses are company expenses.”
“Not anymore.”
“You can’t remove me without a board vote.”
“I didn’t remove you.”
He smiled, sensing an opening.
“I suspended your spending authority pending review.”
The smile disappeared.
Teresa looked between them. “How long has this been planned?”
“It wasn’t planned,” Eleanor said.
David scoffed. “She has a divorce petition in her hand.”
“After the bank called.”
“You had counsel ready.”
“I own a company. I always have counsel ready.”
“You see?” He gestured toward her as if presenting evidence. “She treats marriage like a corporation.”
Eleanor felt the old reflex to defend herself. She let it pass.
“No,” she said. “I treated the corporation like a corporation. You treated the marriage like a line of credit.”
Vanessa looked at the sealed envelope. “Did you know about me before today?”
Eleanor considered lying. It would have been easy to say yes, to make herself look less foolish.
“I suspected someone,” she said. “I didn’t know your name until the receipt.”
Vanessa nodded once.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
David’s face tightened. “Don’t do that.”
She ignored him. “I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“I know.”
The honesty between them was thin and ugly, but it was the first honest thing in the room.
Teresa stood. She looked unsteady but refused Martin’s hand.
“I am going back to my suite.”
David said, “Good.”
She stared at him.
The word had come too quickly.
Eleanor saw him understand the mistake. He reached for his mother’s arm. Teresa stepped away.
“You used our room,” she said.
“What?”
“You put us next door.”
“I booked a family suite.”
“You put us next door so she could be registered under Eleanor’s name without the hotel asking questions.”
“That’s not—”
“You used your father’s birthday trip.”
“It wasn’t only a birthday trip.”
Martin looked at him. “Apparently.”
David lowered his voice. “Mom, you’re upset.”
Teresa’s lips trembled. “Don’t speak to me that way.”
“What way?”
“Like I’m old.”
No one moved.
Teresa walked through the connecting door. Martin retrieved his slipper and followed after a pause. He left the receipt on the table.
Before closing the door, he looked at Eleanor.
“Do I still have access to my medication account?”
“Yes.”
David turned sharply. “You already spoke about that?”
“I made sure your parents’ medical and household expenses were separated before I suspended anything.”
Martin nodded. “Thank you.”
The door closed.
David stood very still.
Vanessa went to the bathroom and returned with a hotel robe pulled over her nightdress. She began gathering her clothes from a chair.
“You’re not leaving,” David said.
She folded a blouse into a suitcase. “I am.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s after midnight.”
“There are hotels in Tokyo.”
“This is a hotel.”
She looked at him.
He rubbed both hands over his face. “Vanessa, please.”
It was the first time Eleanor heard fear in his voice that was not about money.
Vanessa heard it too. Her movements slowed, but she did not stop packing.
“You told me you had booked a house in Kamakura for next year,” she said.
“I was planning to.”
“You told me the transfer was for the down payment.”
Eleanor looked at David.
He said, “Part of the investment strategy included residential assets.”
Vanessa closed the suitcase. “You told me it was our house.”
“It could have been.”
“With her money.”
“Our money.”
Eleanor took one step toward him. “Say that again.”
David met her eyes. “Marital money.”
“The account belongs to a company created before our marriage.”
“You expanded it during the marriage.”
“With retained earnings and my mother’s assets.”
“You think a judge will see it as cleanly as you do?”
“There it is,” Eleanor said. “The actual conversation.”
His jaw moved.
She had expected more denial. Instead, he had begun bargaining.
That frightened her more than his anger.
Vanessa zipped the suitcase. “My passport.”
David did not move.
“Where is it?”
“In the safe.”
“Open it.”
“The safe is registered to the room.”
“Open it.”
He went to the cabinet beneath the television and keyed in six digits. Eleanor watched his hand. The code was her birthday.
The safe opened.
Inside were Vanessa’s passport, several packets of cash, a small leather folder, a second phone, and a stack of documents bound with a black clip.
David reached for the passport.
Eleanor said, “Don’t touch the documents.”
He looked over his shoulder. “They are mine.”
“Then you won’t mind leaving them.”
“I mind you acting like a police officer.”
“I’m not.”
She took out her phone and photographed the open safe from where she stood.
David moved to block her view. “Stop recording.”
“It’s a photograph.”
May you like
“You do not have consent.”
“In Japan, in a hotel room reserved under my identity, with documents relating to my accounts? We can discuss consent with counsel.”
