Chương 2
At Christmas, insults arrived wrapped in questions about whether Genevieve was working too much.
At family dinners, resentment appeared as jokes about Vance money.
Genevieve had paid off Eleanor’s mortgage three years earlier and received a handwritten thank-you card that said family takes care of family.
She wondered whether Eleanor had kept it.
“The company needs stability,” Eleanor continued.
“The company has stability.”
“You’re lying in a hospital bed unable to move.”
“I’m still chief executive.”
“For now.”
Julian looked sharply at his mother.
That was new.
Genevieve filed it away.
“What does that mean?”
Eleanor reached for the documents.
Julian stopped her.
“Mom.”
“She needs to understand.”
“She understands enough.”
“No, she doesn’t, or we wouldn’t still be having this conversation.”
Victoria sighed.
“Can somebody decide what we’re doing?”
Genevieve looked at her.
Victoria was thirty-two, perhaps thirty-three, and worked in corporate communications at Vance Development.
Genevieve had approved her promotion nine months earlier.
At the interview, Victoria had worn a navy suit and spoken intelligently about crisis management.
Genevieve had liked her.
That detail felt humiliating now.
“How long?”
Genevieve asked.
Victoria’s expression changed.
Julian answered first.
“Don’t.”
Genevieve kept watching Victoria.
“How long have you been sleeping with my husband?”
“This isn’t relevant.”
“It is to me.”
Victoria looked at Julian.
He shook his head once.
That was answer enough.
Genevieve swallowed.
“Before I got pregnant?”
Nobody spoke.
Her fingers loosened around the blanket.
Hazel shifted in the bassinet.
Before the fertility appointments, then.
Before Julian held Genevieve’s hand in waiting rooms that smelled of disinfectant and burned coffee.
Before he injected hormones into her abdomen because her hands shook too badly to do it herself.
Before he cried when the second pregnancy test showed two lines.
Genevieve looked at him.
“You were with her while we were trying for Hazel.”
Julian’s eyes reddened.
“Genevieve, this didn’t start the way you think.”
A laugh escaped her.
It hurt her incision.
She pressed one hand against her abdomen and waited for the pain to settle.
“That may be the stupidest sentence you’ve ever said.”
Victoria looked down.
Julian took a step toward the bed.
“I did love you.”
“Past tense.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You brought your mistress naked into my hospital room.”
“She insisted on coming.”
Victoria’s head snapped up.
“Oh, screw you.”
“Could everyone stop?”
Eleanor said.
“No,” Victoria said.
“You wanted me here because you said she’d sign faster if she understood there was no marriage left to save.”
Julian went pale.
Genevieve heard the faint electronic hiss of oxygen from somewhere beyond the wall.
A cart rattled past in the hallway.
Someone laughed at the nurses’ station.
Ordinary life continued twenty feet away.
Genevieve almost envied it.
“Thank you, Victoria,” she said.
Victoria stared at her.
“For what?”
“For correcting the record.”
Julian looked from one woman to the other.
“Genevieve, stop playing games.”
“I’m paralyzed, Julian.”
Her voice came out softer than she intended.
“I don’t have many games available.”
For an instant, Victoria covered her mouth.
Genevieve could not tell whether she was suppressing laughter or shame.
Eleanor could.
“Enough.”
She snatched the pen from Julian and shoved it toward Genevieve.
“Sign.”
“No.”
“You are going to sign these documents.”
“No.”
Eleanor leaned over the bed.
“You have no idea how vulnerable you are right now.”
Genevieve looked at the woman who had attended her baby shower three weeks earlier and spent twenty minutes complaining that the bakery had used the wrong shade of pink frosting.
“What exactly are you threatening?”
Eleanor’s nostrils flared.
Julian stepped forward.
“Mom, leave it.”
“She has treated you like hired help for eleven years.”
“That’s not true.”
“You built that company beside her.”
“He was paid very well,” Genevieve said.
Eleanor looked at her with open hatred.
“There.”
Julian closed his eyes.
“That.”
Genevieve felt something inside her shift.
Not break.
The breaking had happened earlier.
This was colder.
“So that’s what you told her?”
Julian said nothing.
“That I humiliated you?”
“I said it was complicated.”
“You were chief operating officer of a company you didn’t invest one dollar in.”
“I gave it eleven years of my life.”
“And I gave you eleven years of mine.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
The answer came too quickly.
Julian seemed to hear it after he said it.
Victoria stared at the floor.
Eleanor did not care.
She caught Genevieve by the chin.
“Sign the papers.”
Genevieve pulled her face away.
“Take your hand off me.”
“You arrogant little—”
The slap came so quickly that Genevieve saw Eleanor’s shoulder move before she understood what was happening.
Her cheek exploded with heat.
Her head struck the pillow.
Hazel woke screaming.
Every instinct in Genevieve’s body commanded her to rise.
Her useless legs remained beneath the blanket.
“Give me my baby.”
Nobody moved.
“Give me my baby!”
Julian reached for the bassinet.
Genevieve thought he was bringing Hazel to her.
Instead, he lifted the crying newborn and held her against his chest.
Hazel’s face had gone red.
Her tiny mouth opened with each furious cry.
Genevieve had never hated anyone as much as she hated Julian in that moment.
He looked down at his daughter.
His expression collapsed.
“Hey,” he whispered.
Hazel screamed harder.
“Give her to me.”
Julian hesitated.
That hesitation told Genevieve everything the documents had not.
The papers were not merely about controlling the company while she recovered.
They were building a story in which she could not be trusted with her own decisions.
Perhaps eventually not even with Hazel.
Eleanor bent close.
Her perfume filled Genevieve’s lungs.
“Look at yourself,” she whispered.
“You can’t stand.”
Genevieve said nothing.
“You can’t even take your own child from him.”
“Mom,” Julian said.
Eleanor ignored him.
“Who will believe a paralyzed woman?”
Genevieve let the silence remain.
Eleanor mistook it for defeat.
That was her mistake.
May you like
The door opened behind her.
Sarah Thorne stepped into the room with a hospital security officer, Genevieve’s obstetrician, and an expression so controlled that Genevieve knew she was furious.
