Chương 8
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“The transaction required more capital.”
“How much more?”
Charles looked at the floor. “Seven hundred.”
Claire felt the answer settle into the room. “You gave Dominic a million dollars.”
“It was not all at once.”
“That doesn’t improve it.”
“He showed me contracts.”
“Did you verify them?”
“He is my son-in-law.”
Claire nearly laughed. “That seems to be everyone’s favorite credential.”
Charles’s voice sharpened. “Do not speak to me as if I’m an idiot.”
“Then stop telling the story like one.”
He stood so quickly the chair scraped the floor.
Claire flinched.
The movement was small. Charles saw it.
He sat down again.
For a moment neither spoke. Game-show applause burst through the wall, absurdly cheerful, followed by a host shouting about a new car.
Charles lowered his voice. “The investment stalled. Dominic said he could recover the principal if we covered carrying costs. North Orchard was created to separate the transaction from our personal accounts.”
“Who transferred money into it?”
“Dominic arranged financing.”
“From me.”
“He said you knew.”
“I didn’t.”
“He said the two of you discussed it.”
“We didn’t.”
Charles stared at the coffee cup. “He showed me an email.”
“What email?”
“From your account. You said you trusted his judgment and wanted us protected.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Dominic knew her password. For years he had known all of them. Transparency, he called it.
“Do you have the email?”
“Yes.”
“Send it to Naomi.”
“I’m not involving lawyers.”
“You are sitting in a hospital room discussing forged financial documents.”
“Allegedly forged.”
Claire opened her eyes. “You still believe him.”
“I believe the truth is probably more complicated than either of you is saying.”
“He put his hands around my neck.”
“And if he did, that is indefensible.”
“If?”
Charles’s shoulders sank. “Claire, you have always… intensified things.”
She stared at him.
He continued because stopping would have required him to hear himself. “When you were a child, every disappointment became a betrayal. Every disagreement meant no one loved you. Dominic has told us how difficult the last year has been.”
“What has he told you?”
“That you stopped sleeping. That you checked his phone. That you accused him of affairs and stealing. That you threatened to ruin him if he left.”
Claire felt a strange calm. “Did he tell you why I checked his phone?”
“Privacy does not disappear because you’re married.”
“That’s almost funny coming from him.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Charles looked relieved by the admission.
“I found messages between him and my mother,” Claire said.
The relief vanished.
“What kind of messages?”
“She sent him screenshots of everything I told her.”
Charles said nothing.
“Did you know?”
“She was trying to help.”
Claire’s hand moved toward the call button, though she did not press it. “How long?”
“You were having marital problems. Lorraine thought Dominic needed context.”
“How long?”
“A few months.”
“The messages go back two years.”
Charles rubbed his knee again.
Claire saw the truth before he said it. “You knew.”
“Your mother believed direct communication prevented misunderstandings.”
“My mother reported me to my husband.”
“That is a grotesque way to describe it.”
“She told him when I opened a separate bank account.”
“You were talking about leaving without giving him a chance to respond.”
“She told him I was afraid of him.”
“She did not believe you meant physically afraid.”
Claire’s body went cold despite the blanket.
The apartment they had nearly rented came back to her: a small second-floor unit above a bakery in Evanston, with old radiators and a bedroom window facing an alley. Claire had toured it alone, then told Lorraine she might need a place for a few months. Dominic had arrived home that evening with flowers and a printed brochure for a marriage retreat in Arizona.
Claire had thought the timing proved they were connected.
It had proved Lorraine called him.
“You gave him every exit before I reached it,” Claire said.
Charles stood again, more slowly this time. “Your mother was afraid you would make a decision you regretted.”
“She made sure I couldn’t.”
“She wanted your marriage to survive.”
“Why?”
“Because marriage is not disposable.”
“The loan started eighteen months ago. Her messages started two years ago.”
Charles looked toward the door.
“Why?” Claire asked again.
His silence answered with more honesty than anything else he had said.
Dominic had been useful before the investment. He had soothed Lorraine, impressed Charles, fixed tax questions, arranged upgrades, found reservations, sent cars. He had made Claire’s parents feel connected to a world where inconvenience could be solved by a call. Preserving the marriage had preserved him.
Charles picked up the coffee.
“Restore the guarantee,” he said. “Give us enough time to sell something properly. Whatever happened between you and Dominic can be addressed separately.”
Claire looked at her father’s hand around the cup. He had brought coffee for himself into the room where his daughter lay with fractures and bruises, then forgotten to drink it because his own fear occupied every available space.
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
“You are punishing your mother for trying to help you.”
“I am protecting myself from all of you.”
Charles flinched as though she had struck him.
Good, Claire thought, and hated herself for the satisfaction.
He went to the door. Before leaving, he turned.
“Dominic says the documents you took include confidential client information. If you distribute them, you could face serious consequences.”
“Did he ask you to tell me that?”
“He asked me to tell you he still loves you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Charles opened the door.
“Dad.”
He looked back.
“Send Naomi the email.”
He left without answering.
May you like
That afternoon, Claire’s medical team told her she could likely be discharged within forty-eight hours if her oxygen remained stable and she could walk safely. The fractured ribs would take weeks to heal. The bruising around her neck required follow-up. She would need someone with her at first.
Beth presented three options: a confidential shelter, a short-term furnished apartment arranged through a victim-services organization, or the marital house after officers confirmed Dominic had removed his belongings and the locks were changed.
