Chương 14
“You’re not proving anything by opening that door.”
“He deserves to talk to me.”
“Not if he’s there to hit you.”
Solomon was quiet.
Then Marcus spoke again.
“I’m not here to fight.”
The sentence did not reassure me.
Solomon said through the door, “Give me a minute.”
Marcus answered, “I’ve given you eleven months.”
My stomach turned.
Eleven months.
Jennifer had said almost a year.
The number made it suddenly concrete.
Solomon whispered into the phone, “I’m going to talk to him.”
“Keep the door locked.”
“I can’t do this through a door.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I owe him more than that.”
For one second, I wanted to scream at him.
Then another part of me understood exactly what he meant.
Not because it was wise.
Because humiliation sometimes demanded a face.
“Put me on speaker.”
“What?”
“Put me on speaker and set the phone down.”
“Why?”
“So someone else knows what is happening.”
He hesitated.
Then I heard the speaker engage.
“Okay.”
“Now call the front desk on the room phone and tell them you have an unexpected visitor.”
He did.
His voice stayed calm.
He told the clerk there was no emergency but asked that hotel security come to the floor.
Marcus knocked again.
“Solomon.”
Solomon opened the door after the security request was logged.
I heard it.
The latch.
The hinge.
Then silence.
Marcus spoke first.
“You look like hell.”
Solomon answered, “You too.”
A short, bitter laugh came from Marcus.
“Good.”
I sat back down.
Neither man knew I was still listening except Solomon.
Marcus said, “Jennifer told me.”
“I figured.”
“She told me after she got home.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice sharpened.
“Don’t do that yet.”
Solomon went quiet.
“She told me it happened in your house.”
“Yes.”
“Your wife’s house.”
“Yes.”
“With your kid there.”
Solomon said nothing.
Marcus continued.
“My daughter has been in that house.”
That surprised me.
I tried to remember.
Then I did.
The company barbecue.
A little girl with braids had eaten watermelon beside Theo near the patio.
Marcus’s daughter.
“I know,” Solomon said.
“No, I don’t think you do.”
Marcus’s breathing grew louder.
“I put sunscreen on your son.”
I covered my mouth.
“I helped him with that stupid kite.”
“Yes.”
“You stood next to me.”
“I know.”
“And you were sleeping with my wife.”
“Yes.”
The word seemed to hollow out the room even through the phone.
Marcus said, “How long?”
“Almost a year.”
“Start date.”
“I don’t remember exactly.”
“Try.”
Solomon hesitated.
“Late October.”
Marcus laughed once.
“My birthday is October twenty-sixth.”
Solomon said nothing.
“Was it before or after?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus’s voice broke.
“Of course you don’t.”
For several seconds, the only sound was hotel ventilation.
Then Marcus asked, “Do you love her?”
I stopped breathing.
Solomon did not answer.
Marcus said, “That’s not a hard question.”
“It is.”
“For who?”
Solomon exhaled.
“I cared about her.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I don’t know if I loved her.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Unbelievable.”
A knock came at the open doorway.
A new voice identified hotel security.
Relief moved through me.
Solomon explained there was no immediate threat.
Marcus said, “I’m leaving.”
Then he stopped.
“Actually, one thing.”
Solomon did not speak.
Marcus’s voice lowered.
“Your wife is on the phone, isn’t she?”
My entire body went still.
Solomon said nothing.
Marcus continued.
“I saw the call screen when you opened the door.”
A pause.
Then he said my name.
“I know you can hear me.”
I closed my eyes.
“Yes.”
Marcus breathed out slowly.
“I’m sorry.”
I had no answer for that.
He continued.
“Not for him.”
“I know.”
“For what my wife helped do to your kid.”
My throat tightened.
“Thank you.”
He was quiet.
Then he said, “She told me Charlotte made the plans.”
Solomon said, “Marcus.”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice hardened.
“She told me your mother didn’t just cover for you.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“She arranged when the house would be empty.”
Solomon swore.
Marcus continued.
“She checked your wife’s work calendar.”
The room seemed to contract.
I stood again.
“What?”
Solomon said, “That’s not—”
Marcus cut him off.
“Jennifer showed me the messages.”
I could hear paper or a phone moving in his hand.
“Charlotte asked for screenshots of your schedule.”
My skin went cold.
“She told Jennifer which days were safest.”
Solomon’s voice dropped.
“I didn’t know that.”
Marcus laughed without humor.
“Then apparently everybody had secrets from everybody.”
I stared toward the kitchen where my parents were keeping Theo occupied.
The betrayal shifted shape again.
Charlotte had not merely arrived before something happened.
She had known exactly when it could happen.
She had built the empty hours herself.
For several seconds, nobody on the call spoke.
Then Marcus said, “I’m going home.”
Solomon answered, “Marcus.”
“No.”
The hotel room sounded farther away now.
“I came here because I thought I needed to look at you.”
Marcus’s voice lost some of its anger.
“I don’t.”
A pause.
“I need to go look at my daughter.”
The line clicked silent from his end.
Hotel security said something I could not make out.
Solomon answered briefly.
Then a door closed.
I stayed standing in my parents’ living room with the phone against my ear.
“Did you know?”
I asked.
“No.”
“About Charlotte checking my calendar.”
“No.”
“Think before you answer.”
“I am.”
His voice sounded stripped down now.
“I knew she sometimes asked when you’d be gone.”
I closed my eyes.
“That is knowing.”
“I thought she was trying to help keep things from blowing up.”
“That sentence doesn’t even belong in the same universe as help.”
“I know.”
“No, you keep saying that after the fact.”
He did not defend himself.
From the kitchen came Theo’s voice asking my mother whether marshmallows counted as dinner.
She told him only if he became president.
He asked if presidents could eat anything they wanted.
May you like
My father answered, “Probably, but they shouldn’t.”
I pressed my fingers against my forehead.
