Chương 2
I watched his attention settle on the tab marked CAPITAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
The first document showed the transfer from the investment account my parents had left me.
The second traced those funds into the holding company through which Vextor’s early shares had been purchased.
The third was our prenuptial agreement.
The fourth was an amendment Christopher himself had signed six years earlier after an investor demanded clarification about ownership.
“You set me up,” he said.
“No,” I replied.
“I kept records.”
“That money went into my company.”
“Part of it did.”
“You gave it to us.”
“I invested it.”
His eyes moved to Priya.
“She was my wife.”
Priya folded her hands.
“She was also an investor.”
Christopher pushed the folder away without opening it.
“Victoria never cared about that distinction before.”
“I didn’t expect to need it before.”
His mouth tightened.
Daniel quietly pulled the folder toward himself.
He read for nearly a minute.
Christopher tapped two fingers against the table.
It was a habit he had whenever someone else controlled the pace of a conversation.
Finally Daniel said, “The language is fairly clear.”
“Whose side are you on?”
Daniel looked up.
“The side where you don’t pay me to lie to you.”
Priya lowered her eyes, and I suspected she was hiding a smile.
Christopher stood.
For one hopeful second, I thought he might leave.
Instead he walked to the window.
Traffic crawled along the street below.
A man at the crosswalk was trying to keep a golden retriever from stealing something out of a paper grocery bag.
Christopher stared down at them.
“So this is what you wanted.”
“I wanted the divorce finished.”
“No, you wanted to punish me.”
I almost answered too quickly.
Maybe some part of me did.
There had been nights when I imagined taking every dollar I could legally claim simply because Michelle had once sat at my kitchen table drinking my wine and asking whether Christopher and I were considering adoption.
But anger was a poor accountant.
I had spent too many years repairing Christopher’s impulsive decisions to make one of my own now.
“I want what belongs to me,” I said.
He turned.
“And what good is it going to do you?”
“Christopher.”
Daniel’s warning came quietly.
Christopher ignored him.
“I have Michelle.”
His voice rose.
“I have a son and a daughter.”
A receptionist passed the glass wall outside and immediately looked away.
“You’ll end up alone with your spreadsheets, Victoria.”
My face grew hot.
Priya shifted beside me, but I raised one hand.
There was something I had been trying not to ask since the hospital photograph arrived.
Now anger pushed it out.
“Three specialists tested us.”
Christopher went still.
I continued before caution could catch up with me.
“Two reproductive endocrinologists and a urologist.”
“You really want to discuss this here?”
“They all said the same thing.”
Daniel looked between us.
“No obvious medical reason we couldn’t conceive.”
Christopher’s fingers stopped tapping.
I leaned forward.
“So explain something to me.”
He did not answer.
“How did Michelle become pregnant almost immediately?”
His expression changed so slightly another person might have missed it.
I had spent twelve years learning his face.
This was not embarrassment.
It was fear.
“With twins,” I added.
“Victoria, enough.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s none of your business anymore.”
“You made it my business when you called to tell me she succeeded where I failed.”
Daniel removed his glasses.
Priya said nothing.
Christopher returned to his chair and signed the property schedule without reading the last two pages.
His signature slashed downward at the end.
He shoved the pen onto the table.
“You always have to win.”
“No.”
I looked at the ink spreading slightly where he had pressed too hard.
“I just stopped agreeing to lose.”
He gathered his coat and walked out.
Daniel stayed long enough to apologize for nothing in particular.
After he left, Priya waited until the conference-room door clicked shut.
“What was that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You asked him a reasonable question and he looked like you’d asked where he buried somebody.”
“I noticed.”
She studied me.
“Do you want me to dig into it?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Priya noticed that too.
She put the lid back on her almonds.
“Fine.”
“I’m divorced.”
“You are.”
“I would like to try being divorced for at least one afternoon before turning it into another project.”
“That sounds healthy.”
“Don’t sound so surprised.”
“I’m your lawyer, not your therapist.”
“Thank God.”
She laughed, and for the first time that morning I did too.
By evening, I had nearly convinced myself Christopher’s reaction meant nothing.
Then Evelyn Lawson called.
I had not spoken to my former mother-in-law since she learned about Michelle.
Evelyn had responded to the affair with a silence so complete I initially assumed she blamed me.
Her name appeared on my phone at 8:17.
I considered letting it ring.
Then I answered.
“Victoria.”
Her voice sounded strained.
“Hello, Evelyn.”
“Are you alone?”
I looked around my empty apartment.
“Yes.”
There was a pause.
Then she asked, “Did Christopher ever tell you which fertility clinic Michelle used?”
I sat down slowly.
“No.”
Another pause.
“What about Tucson?”
“What about it?”
“Did Michelle ever mention going there?”
“No.”
Evelyn exhaled.
I could hear papers moving near the receiver.
Then she asked the question that made the room seem suddenly colder.
“Did she ever tell you she was meeting someone else from the Lawson family?”
The question sat between us long enough for me to hear the compressor in my refrigerator shut off.
“Someone from Christopher’s family?”
“That is what I asked.”
Evelyn’s voice had the clipped quality she used when frightened and determined not to sound frightened.
“Who?”
“I’m not certain yet.”
“You called me without knowing?”
“I called because I need to know whether Christopher ever mentioned Desert Bloom Reproductive Center.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“No.”
“Michelle?”
“No.”
May you like
I got up and walked back toward the study.
The folders on Vextor were still where I had left them, but suddenly they seemed unrelated to the problem opening beneath my feet.
