Chương 5
Now her lip was split, her ribs were bruised, and a forged loan application sat in an encrypted folder.
Being wrong did not make her father right.
The distinction mattered.
She held onto it.
Mara’s phone buzzed.
She checked the screen.
“We need to leave.”
Audrey looked at the clock.
9:17.
“My doctor said come now.”
“That is not why.”
Mara turned the phone toward them.
A message filled the screen.
It was from a number Audrey did not recognize.
Thomas read it first.
His face changed.
Audrey took the phone.
Tell Audrey lunch has moved up.
We’ll be there at ten.
Audrey read the message twice.
“Who gave him your number?”
Mara took the phone back.
“No one.”
Thomas was already moving toward the front window.
Mara caught his sleeve before he reached the curtain.
“Don’t.”
“He’s coming here.”
“Yes.”
“In forty minutes.”
“Yes.”
Thomas looked at Audrey.
“You’re leaving now.”
Audrey’s first instinct was to resist him simply because he had said it as an order.
The instinct was so familiar that it almost embarrassed her.
She picked up her suitcase instead.
“I’m going to the doctor.”
Mara nodded.
“Good.”
“And then?”
“Then somewhere Julian doesn’t expect.”
“I have a hotel account through work.”
“No.”
Audrey frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because if he knows enough about your routines, he may know that too.”
Thomas said, “Come to my house.”
Audrey looked at him.
He understood the answer before she gave it.
“Fine.”
His mouth tightened.
“Not my house.”
Mara slipped her phone into her jacket pocket.
“I have a client apartment downtown that isn’t occupied this week.”
Thomas stared at her.
“You have a client apartment?”
“It belongs to the firm.”
“Why have I never heard about this?”
“Because you are not a client.”
Audrey nearly laughed again.
The movement pulled at her lip.
She stopped.
Mara pointed toward the suitcase.
“Passport?”
“Yes.”
“Medication?”
“Yes.”
“Work laptop?”
“Yes.”
“Personal financial documents?”
“Some.”
“Take whatever you can reach in two minutes.”
Audrey looked toward the dining room.
“What about the house?”
Mara’s expression softened, though her voice did not.
“The house will still be here.”
Audrey wanted to believe that.
She went upstairs.
The bedroom looked worse now that daylight had fully entered it.
The dresser drawer Julian had kicked shut hung crooked on one side.
One of Audrey’s earrings lay near the baseboard.
A tiny pearl.
She picked it up.
For a moment she had no idea what to do with it.
Then she put it in her pocket.
She opened the closet and pulled down the small fire-resistant document pouch she had forgotten.
Inside were copies of the deed, her grandmother’s death certificate, old tax returns, and the prenup Julian had resented signing.
Audrey paused with that document in her hands.
Julian had complained about it for months before the wedding.
He had told friends it was Thomas’s idea.
It had been.
Audrey had signed it partly to prove that her father could not control her.
The irony felt mean.
She shoved the prenup into the pouch and zipped it closed.
Downstairs, Thomas was standing by the front door with her suitcase.
Mara was photographing the dining room.
Audrey stopped.
“I thought you said we were leaving.”
“We are.”
Mara crouched to photograph a faint brown smear near the base of the table.
“What is that?”
Audrey looked at it.
“I don’t know.”
Then she did.
“Wine.”
“From last night?”
“Yes.”
“Did the glass break?”
“No.”
“Anything else break?”
“The vase.”
“You cleaned it up?”
“Yes.”
Mara glanced at her.
“Of course you did.”
Audrey felt defensive.
“There was water everywhere.”
“I’m not criticizing you.”
“It sounded like it.”
“That was me criticizing the situation.”
Mara straightened.
“Do you have photographs from before you cleaned?”
“No.”
“Fine.”
Thomas reached for the door.
Audrey stopped him.
“I want the makeup bag.”
Both of them looked at her.
Audrey went upstairs one final time and brought it down.
The black pouch seemed ridiculous in her hand.
Cheap nylon.
Gold zipper.
A sample-sized tube of green color corrector inside.
Julian had remembered exactly what shade hid purple.
Audrey put the bag in a grocery sack without touching anything else inside it.
Mara watched.
“Why?”
“He handled it.”
“That may or may not matter.”
“I know.”
Mara nodded once.
They left at 9:28.
Audrey locked the front door.
Then she checked it.
Then she checked it again.
Thomas said nothing.
Mara’s car was parked behind his.
She insisted Audrey ride with her.
Thomas objected.
Mara ignored him.
Audrey was grateful.
She did not want to sit beside her father yet.
The doctor’s office was twelve minutes away.
At the first red light, Mara glanced over.
“You can change your mind about everything except medical care.”
Audrey watched a woman in running clothes push a stroller across the intersection.
“Everything?”
“Police report.”
“Leaving him.”
“Contacting him.”
“Calling my employer.”
“Yes.”
Audrey looked at her.
“Why would I change my mind about leaving?”
Mara kept her eyes on the light.
“Because people do.”
“I won’t.”
“I hope you don’t.”
“That sounded patronizing.”
“It wasn’t meant to.”
The light changed.
Mara drove.
After half a block, she said, “You’ve had less than twelve hours to absorb the fact that your husband assaulted you, may have committed financial fraud using your identity, and appears to know details about a trust you didn’t know existed.”
Audrey looked out the window.
“When you say it like that, it sounds bad.”
Mara glanced at her.
“It is bad.”
Audrey pressed her tongue gently against the cut inside her lip.
“I know.”
The doctor’s office had rearranged the schedule.
A nurse brought Audrey through a side door so she would not have to wait in the lobby.
Audrey hated the gesture.
Then she hated herself for hating it.
The nurse was named Simone.
She wore purple glasses and did not lower her voice into false tenderness.
“Take everything off except your underwear.”
Audrey stared at the gown.
“Everything?”
May you like
“Everything.”
“I have bruising on my ribs.”
