Chương 6
She did not know whether that sentence was legally sound. She knew only that it made him hesitate.
Vanessa took her passport from the safe herself. “What is the other phone?”
David closed the safe door.
She stared at him. “Is there someone else?”
He did not answer quickly enough.
Vanessa’s face emptied.
Eleanor felt no triumph. Only exhaustion.
“Is there?” Vanessa asked again.
“It’s a business phone.”
“You told me the silver one was your business phone.”
“I have more than one line.”
“For what?”
“International work.”
Eleanor thought of all the nights David placed one phone on the bedside table and left another somewhere she did not know to look.
Vanessa picked up her suitcase. It was too heavy. She set it down, removed a pair of shoes, then put them back as if unable to decide what mattered.
“I’ll have the hotel send someone,” she said.
David stood between her and the door. “We are not ending this because Eleanor manufactured a crisis.”
Vanessa looked at him for a long time. “The crisis is that your wife found us in bed.”
“We were not in bed.”
Eleanor glanced at the sheets.
David’s voice sharpened. “You know what I mean.”
“No,” Vanessa said. “I don’t think I do.”
He lowered his voice again, using the tone Eleanor had once believed belonged only to her. “You are shocked. So am I. We don’t make permanent decisions while shocked.”
Vanessa’s grip tightened on the suitcase handle.
Eleanor recognized the pause. David had built much of his life inside pauses like that. He found people at the point where certainty required more energy than surrender.
Vanessa looked down.
Eleanor said, “There is a car downstairs. It was arranged for me, but you can take it.”
David turned. “Stay out of this.”
“She asked for a hotel.”
“She did not ask you.”
Vanessa looked at Eleanor. “Where is it going?”
“Anywhere you tell the driver. The Mandarin may have rooms. Or the Peninsula. The concierge can call ahead.”
“I don’t want your charity.”
“It isn’t charity. It is transportation.”
“Still paid for by you.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa pressed her lips together. “I’ll order my own.”
She took out her phone, tapped twice, and frowned.
David said nothing.
“Did you cancel my card?” she asked him.
“It’s on my account.”
“You told me it was mine.”
“It’s an authorized-user card.”
Vanessa looked at Eleanor.
Eleanor said, “It was frozen with the others.”
Vanessa sat down on the suitcase.
For one absurd moment, nobody spoke because the practical humiliation was worse than the moral one. Vanessa had no working card, perhaps no hotel reservation in her own name, and less cash than she needed. David had constructed dependence and called it luxury.
“I’ll use the car,” she said.
Eleanor nodded.
David stepped toward her. “Vanessa.”
She stood again. “Don’t follow me.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
He looked at Eleanor.
Vanessa shook her head. “You still think she’s the dangerous one.”
She wheeled the suitcase toward the door. At the threshold, she stopped and took the diamond ring from the box. David’s expression lifted with hope.
Vanessa placed it in his palm and closed his fingers over it.
“I liked it better before I knew the price.”
Then she left.
The latch clicked behind her.
David opened his hand. The ring lay against his skin.
Eleanor found herself noticing that his fingernails were neatly trimmed. She had booked his manicure before the trip.
He set the ring on the table.
“You enjoyed that,” he said.
“No.”
“You wanted her to see you rescue her.”
“I wanted her out of a room booked under my passport.”
“You always need the moral high ground.”
“I’m barefoot in your adultery suite. I’m not sure there is high ground.”
His mouth almost moved toward a smile. The old reflex between them appeared and died.
For twelve years, they had used humor as a small bridge over things they refused to discuss. Sometimes the bridge held. Sometimes they stood on it until the river changed course beneath them.
David walked to the minibar and poured whiskey into a water glass.
“You should go,” he said.
“So should you.”
“This room is paid through Sunday.”
“Not anymore.”
He drank. “You canceled the hotel?”
“I corrected the guest information and moved your charges to personal responsibility. The hotel manager will speak with you in the morning.”
“You spoke to the manager before coming upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“You planned the performance.”
“I planned not to be arrested for using my own passport.”
He put the glass down. “You could have called me.”
“I did.”
“You could have waited.”
“For what?”
“For me to come home.”
“With what remained?”
His face hardened. “You have no idea what pressure I’ve been under.”
Eleanor looked at the black-clipped documents inside the safe.
“Then tell me.”
He followed her gaze. “Those are confidential.”
“Whose confidentiality?”
“Investors.”
“Which investors?”
He drank again.
She sat in the chair Martin had left. The robe slipped open over her travel clothes. Her feet were dirty from the petals, carpet, and corridor.
“I’m listening,” she said.
David stared at her as though she had set another trap.
Perhaps she had.
He sat on the edge of the bed, far from the sealed envelope. “The Singapore account was temporary. Luke introduced me to a group building a hospitality platform. They needed proof of funds before opening the data room.”
“You tried to send two million dollars as proof of funds?”
“It would have remained in escrow.”
“Why use my signature?”
“I didn’t.”
“The bank has the authorization.”
“I used a saved approval.”
“In my name.”
“You approved similar transfers.”
“Not this one.”
“You gave me delegated authority.”
“Up to two hundred thousand.”
He looked away.
The number sat between them.
Eleanor leaned forward. “How much have you already sent?”
“Nothing.”
“How much?”
“Nothing from Meridian.”
May you like
“That is not what I asked.”
David rubbed the back of his neck. “I moved some personal funds.”
