Chương 6
At two fifteen, Emma received a text from Brad.
I didn’t approve my mother’s statement.
At two sixteen:
I told her to take it down.
At two seventeen:
Please don’t punish my employees for this.
Emma read the messages without replying.
His concern for his employees was real. So was the implication that she might punish them. Brad had always carried two versions of her: the disciplined woman he admired and the powerful woman he feared. Whenever she disappointed him, the second version became more convenient.
At three, Mara called.
“The lease renewal was submitted to an insurer as part of the Thompson property file.”
“For what purpose?”
“The house had a liability-policy review. The lease established that you were an unrelated paying occupant.”
“I was Brad’s wife.”
“Exactly.”
Emma leaned back in her chair.
“Why would they classify me as unrelated?”
“Possibly to preserve terms under a family-residence policy. Possibly to document rental income. I’m waiting for the broker’s file.”
“Is that fraud?”
“I’m not using the word until I see the application.”
“Good.”
Mara made a frustrated sound. “You are correcting my caution now?”
“I need facts.”
“You need sleep.”
“What else?”
“The payment account was used for property expenses, but not exclusively. There are transfers to a personal account in Katherine’s name.”
“How much?”
“Unknown. We need formal records.”
“Can we get them without filing?”
“Not unless they volunteer.”
“They won’t.”
“Then the divorce petition creates a path.”
Emma looked at the blank legal pad in front of her.
“I want it filed quietly.”
“Brad will be served.”
“I understand how service works.”
“I’m reminding you because quiet is not the same as invisible.”
“File tomorrow.”
Mara paused.
“You said that very quickly.”
“I’ve been deciding slowly for years.”
After work, Emma did not return directly to The Pinnacle.
She drove north along the lake, passed the turn for the Thompson house, and continued until traffic thinned. Her phone rested facedown in the cupholder. She had not driven without a destination since college.
At a red light, she noticed a dry-cleaning tag still looped through the sleeve of her suit jacket. Katherine would have removed it immediately. Emma tugged at it with one hand and failed. When the light changed, she left it there.
She stopped at a small grocery store near Evanston and bought pajama pants, toothpaste, apples, coffee, and a frozen pizza. At checkout, the cashier looked at Emma twice.
“You’re that building lady,” he said.
Emma placed her card in the reader.
“I work in real estate.”
“My sister sent me the video.”
“I see.”
“She says you should sue everybody.”
The cashier was perhaps nineteen. He scanned the apples one at a time though they were priced by weight.
“My sister says that about most things,” he added.
Emma almost smiled. “She sounds consistent.”
“She is.”
The total appeared. Emma paid and carried her own bag to the car.
At the residence, the pizza did not fit properly on the narrow oven rack because no one had used the oven since it was replaced. Emma found the manual in the blue folder Katherine had packed. For ten minutes she stood in the kitchen reading instructions about convection settings while national accounts debated whether she had been a victim or a manipulator.
The pizza burned at one edge and remained cold in the middle.
She ate two slices anyway.
At nine, someone rang from the lobby.
Daniel called first.
“Mrs. Thompson is here.”
“Katherine?”
“Yes.”
“Is Brad with her?”
“No.”
Emma looked at the half-eaten pizza.
“Did she ask to come up?”
“She stated that she had a right to speak with you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No. She did not ask.”
Emma appreciated the distinction.
“Tell her I will meet her in the residents’ conference room on twenty. Ten minutes. You may remain outside.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Emma changed nothing about her appearance. She wore the Northwestern shirt, black running pants, and no shoes. Then she looked down and put on flats, not for Katherine but because the conference room carpet made her feet itch.
Katherine was waiting beside the table when Emma entered.
She still wore the beige coat from the lobby. Her silver-blonde hair remained pinned in its elegant updo, but several strands had loosened near one ear. The taupe handbag sat upright on the table as if placed for inspection.
Daniel closed the door and remained outside the glass wall.
Katherine looked at Emma’s T-shirt.
“I see you’ve made yourself comfortable.”
“I live here.”
The sentence landed more quietly than the one in the elevator.
Katherine removed her gloves finger by finger.
“You embarrassed Brad today.”
“Brad embarrassed Brad.”
“He has two hundred employees.”
“One hundred eighty-four.”
Katherine’s eyes sharpened. “You checked.”
“I review conflicts before they become liabilities.”
“And people wonder why you’re difficult to love.”
Emma pulled out a chair but did not sit.
“You came here for something.”
“I came to correct the impression you created.”
“I didn’t invite your relatives.”
“You knew exactly what that elevator would do.”
“It took me home.”
Katherine’s mouth tightened.
For a moment, the polished woman who chaired luncheons and corrected wine pairings seemed to have no prepared language.
Then she opened her handbag and removed a check.
The amount was one hundred nine thousand five hundred dollars.
Emma recognized the extra fifteen hundred as the security deposit.
Katherine placed it on the table.
“The rent will be returned.”
“From which account?”
“My personal account.”
“Why?”
“To end this.”
“It doesn’t.”
Katherine’s fingers pressed the check flat.
“You paid willingly.”
“I paid under an agreement that expired five years ago.”
“You continued living in my house.”
“With my husband.”
“You consumed resources.”
“I offered to pay actual household costs. You refused.”
“Because I would not be bought.”
Emma looked at the check.
“What did you spend the money on?”
“The house.”
“All of it?”
Katherine’s gaze shifted half an inch toward the glass wall.
May you like
Emma saw the answer.
“How much went into your personal account?”
