Chương 11
His daughter remained out of every news report, mostly because Sophie insisted the foundation’s public statements never name her.
Dennis Reed was moved to a less expensive facility.
Sophie visited him once.
She did not tell Nathan until afterward.
“You did what?”
“I visited her father.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
“That is usually implied by ‘wanted to.’”
Nathan stared at her.
“What did you say to him?”
“Nothing useful.”
“Does he understand what happened?”
“Some of it.”
Nathan waited.
Sophie sat at the kitchen island and peeled the paper sleeve from a coffee cup.
“He asked where Vanessa was.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That she couldn’t visit right now.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“How was he?”
“Old.”
“He’s sixty-seven.”
“Today he looked old.”
She folded the sleeve in half.
Then again.
“He had a photograph of her beside his bed.”
Nathan sat across from her.
“I thought I would be furious.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“What were you?”
Sophie looked down at the cardboard in her hands.
“Sad.”
Vanessa finally entered a plea nine months after the night in the penthouse.
The agreement required her to admit the financial theft, evidence destruction, and intentional medication tampering. She did not admit that she intended to kill Sophie.
Prosecutors did not claim they could prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.
Nathan hated the distinction.
Sophie accepted it.
“You accept too much,” he told her the night they received the final agreement.
“No. I accept what can be proven.”
“You sound like Morales.”
“She’s growing on me.”
“You have poor judgment in friends.”
The joke left his mouth before he could stop it.
Sophie’s face changed.
Nathan felt immediate regret.
“God. Sophie.”
She looked away.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“That was—”
“Awful.”
“Yes.”
She stood and walked toward the windows.
Nathan stayed where he was.
The city below them was beginning to light itself for evening.
“I don’t want her to own every joke for the rest of my life,” Sophie said.
Nathan looked up.
She kept her back to him.
“I don’t want people whispering around me. I don’t want everyone who knows what happened to become afraid of mentioning friendship or medication or betrayal or anything else.”
“I wasn’t trying—”
“I know.”
She turned.
“I just want some parts of me back.”
Nathan nodded.
The sentencing hearing took place in winter.
Sophie did not have to attend.
She did.
Vanessa entered the courtroom wearing a dark navy suit.
For the first time since Nathan had known her, her hair was not perfectly arranged. A loose strand rested against her cheek.
Nathan hated himself for noticing.
Sophie sat beside him.
Their hands did not touch.
When Vanessa turned before sitting with her attorneys, her eyes found Sophie immediately.
Sophie did not look away.
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
That tiny movement was the closest thing to the woman from the penthouse Nathan had seen since the arrest.
During her statement, Vanessa did not give a perfect apology.
Nathan was grateful for that.
She began once, stopped, drank water, and started again.
“I kept telling myself the next thing would repair the thing before it,” she said. “The next payment would let me replace the last one. The next lie would buy me time. The next decision would keep my father where he was, keep Marcus from losing his house, keep Sophie from finding out what I’d done.”
She looked toward the defense table.
“I knew she trusted me. I used that.”
Nathan felt Sophie’s hand close around the edge of the bench.
Vanessa continued.
“When she started asking about the money, I was afraid. That word is not enough, but it’s the true one. I was afraid of prison. I was afraid my father would lose his care. I was afraid Sophie would look at me exactly the way she is looking at me now.”
Her voice broke slightly.
She stopped.
No one moved.
“I told myself I only needed her to be confused for a few hours. I knew she had once taken too much medication by accident. I knew Nathan had been frightened by it. I thought if it happened again, they would doubt each other long enough for me to remove the files.”
Nathan stared at Vanessa.
There it was.
Not the money.
Not the pills.
The weapon had been their marriage.
Vanessa looked at Sophie.
“I knew where to put the doubt.”
Sophie’s breathing changed beside him.
Nathan did not look at her.
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“I don’t know how to apologize for knowing someone that well and using it against them.”
She sat down.
Nathan had expected rage.
Instead he felt something worse.
Recognition.
Vanessa had not invented the weakness she used.
She had found it.
The court imposed a substantial prison sentence along with restitution and other penalties.
Nathan barely heard the number.
Outside, reporters waited behind barriers.
Sophie stopped before walking through the courthouse doors.
“You ready?” Nathan asked.
“No.”
They went anyway.
Questions came immediately.
Did she forgive Vanessa?
Did she believe the sentence was fair?
Was her marriage affected?
Would the foundation continue?
Had Nathan Cole used his influence with prosecutors?
Nathan’s jaw tightened at that one.
Sophie touched his arm.
Not to calm him.
To keep him from answering.
She stepped toward the microphones.
“We’re continuing the foundation’s work,” she said. “We’re completing the financial reforms we announced this year. I’m grateful to the investigators and to the staff who stayed through an extremely difficult period.”
A reporter shouted, “Do you forgive Vanessa Reed?”
Sophie paused.
Nathan watched her.
Months earlier he would have tried to anticipate the correct answer.
Now he simply waited.
Sophie said, “I don’t know.”
The reporters went quiet enough to hear cameras clicking.
She continued.
“I don’t think forgiveness is something I owe the public on a courthouse sidewalk.”
Then she walked away.
Nathan followed.
In the car, neither spoke for several blocks.
Finally he said, “That was good.”
Sophie looked out the window.
May you like
“I wasn’t performing.”
“I know.”
