Chương 7
Nathan recoiled.
“That’s unfair.”
“Probably.”
“Claire.”
“I’m angry enough to be unfair sometimes.”
He looked down at his coffee.
“Okay.”
She almost apologized.
She didn’t.
“How’s work?” she asked.
“They extended the leave.”
“Paid?”
“For now.”
“Who told you?”
“Martin.”
Martin was the company’s CEO and Nathan’s godfather.
“What reason?”
“Family conflict affecting the workplace.”
“Has it affected the workplace?”
“My mother has.”
Claire waited.
Nathan rubbed his jaw.
“She called two executives and told them I was unstable because of marital problems.”
Claire stared.
“When?”
“After I gave police the texts.”
There it was again.
Consequence.
Vivian had not stopped fighting.
She had changed arenas.
“What did you do?”
“I sent Martin the video.”
Claire blinked.
“You sent it to your company?”
“He kept telling me this was a private family misunderstanding. I wanted him to understand why I wasn’t going to tell the police my mother tripped.”
“Did she ask you to say that?”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Her attorney suggested I might have misunderstood what I saw.”
Claire sat back.
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“What did Martin say after the video?”
“He said he needed time.”
Claire laughed softly.
“Of course he did.”
Nathan’s mouth twitched.
For one second, they were themselves again.
Then both of them noticed.
The expression vanished.
The protective-order hearing took place in a courtroom far less dramatic than Claire had imagined.
The fluorescent lights were too bright. The benches were hard. Someone’s phone vibrated twice before a clerk told everyone to turn devices off.
Vivian wore a navy suit.
Claire had seen her wear it at two charity lunches.
That irritated her more than it should have.
Nathan sat behind Claire.
He had offered not to attend.
Claire had told him to come.
She still did not know why.
Vivian’s attorney argued that the confrontation had been intense but brief, that Vivian had never touched Claire, that the pot struck furniture rather than a person, and that Vivian had no history of violence.
Marisol did not dramatize the video.
She played it.
The courtroom listened.
Claire heard her own voice again.
She hated the breathlessness in it.
Vivian looked straight ahead.
Then came the exterior footage showing her retrieving the pot from the trunk.
Her attorney’s posture changed almost imperceptibly.
Claire noticed.
So did Marisol.
When Vivian testified, she said she had taken the pot home accidentally after the cookout.
That was plausible.
Then she said she had intended to return it.
Also plausible.
She had brought it into the house because she remembered it was Claire’s.
Plausible.
She carried it upstairs because she had been heading upstairs to speak with Claire.
Still possible.
She slammed it onto the mattress because Claire had insulted her.
The room became very quiet.
Vivian seemed to hear her own sentence after speaking it.
Her attorney closed his eyes for half a second.
Claire looked at Nathan.
He stared at his mother.
Vivian tried to repair the answer.
“I don’t mean that the insult justified anything. I mean I was upset.”
Marisol asked what Claire had said.
Vivian hesitated.
“She told me I had no right to question her.”
“Was that the insult?”
“It was the way she said it.”
Marisol waited.
Vivian added, “She has always been skilled at provoking people while appearing calm.”
Claire felt anger rise.
Marisol did not turn toward her.
That helped.
“Did Mrs. Harper provoke you into bringing the pot from your vehicle?”
“No.”
“Did she provoke you into carrying it upstairs?”
“No.”
“Did she provoke you into telling her she should not carry the pregnancy if the child might not be your son’s?”
Vivian’s attorney objected.
The judge handled it.
Claire barely listened.
She watched Nathan.
His face was gray.
When he was called, he walked to the witness stand like someone approaching a hospital room.
His testimony was short.
Yes, he had told his mother about his old fertility concerns.
Yes, he had expressed irrational fear after an early pregnancy date estimate shifted by several days.
No, Claire had never admitted infidelity.
No, he had no evidence of infidelity.
No, he had not asked his mother to confront Claire.
No, he had not asked her to investigate.
No, he had not known about the pot.
Then Vivian’s attorney asked the question Claire had feared.
“Mr. Harper, at the time you spoke with your mother, did you personally have uncertainty about whether you were the biological father?”
Nathan looked toward Claire.
She wanted him to lie.
The realization disgusted her.
She wanted him to say no because they were in public, because Vivian was watching, because strangers were listening, because she was tired of being the humiliating fact in somebody else’s case.
Nathan looked back at the attorney.
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Only for a second.
The attorney continued.
“So your mother’s concerns did not arise from nowhere.”
Nathan’s voice changed.
“No.”
Vivian looked at him.
“But her certainty did.”
Her attorney paused.
Nathan continued.
“I gave my mother a fear I should have brought to my wife. I told her more than I should have because I was embarrassed. My mother turned that into an accusation. I told her to stop. She didn’t.”
“Mr. Harper, you cannot know what your mother believed.”
“No.”
“You also cannot know whether she intended to harm your wife.”
“No.”
“Then we agree.”
“No.”
The attorney frowned.
Nathan leaned slightly toward the microphone.
“We agree I can’t read her mind. We don’t agree that means what she did was harmless.”
Claire lowered her gaze.
It was not a perfect speech.
Nathan’s voice shook on the last word.
That made it better.
The judge granted a protective order.
There were terms Claire listened to carefully because she intended to follow them. Vivian was to stay away from Claire, the house, and Claire’s workplace, and there were restrictions on contact.
Outside the courtroom, Vivian walked toward them before her attorney caught her arm.
She stopped several yards away.
May you like
“Is this what you wanted?” she asked Nathan.
The question was for him.
