Chương 3
Later Leah understood that he was not gentler. He simply used different tools.
The chef’s assistant entered with bread. Victoria asked him where he had trained. Adrian checked his watch. Leah touched the stem of her water glass and counted her breaths.
At one twenty, she needed to excuse herself.
At one twenty-two, she needed to be in the upstairs office.
At one twenty-seven, she needed to have the folder.
At one thirty-five, she needed to cross the lawn.
The times had seemed generous when she wrote them on the inside of a paperback and then tore out the page.
Now every minute felt visible.
Adrian buttered a piece of bread.
“Mother has agreed to stay through the weekend.”
Leah looked up.
Victoria’s spoon paused.
“That wasn’t decided.”
“We discussed it.”
“You suggested it.”
“And you didn’t say no.”
Victoria glanced at Leah. “I have a board dinner tomorrow.”
“You can drive in.”
“I don’t keep clothes here.”
“You have an entire room upstairs.”
“I have a room decorated by a woman who thought upholstered walls were restful.”
Adrian smiled again. “Then we’ll suffer together.”
Leah pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth.
Victoria staying through the weekend closed the house around her. Staff altered their movements when Victoria was present. Calvin remained later. A driver waited near the garage. The kitchen never emptied. The service gate was checked twice at night because Victoria complained about deer eating the roses.
“Is there a reason?” Leah asked.
Adrian drank water.
“For what?”
“For the visit.”
“Lunch.”
“You said the weekend.”
Victoria folded her napkin once, aligning the corners.
Adrian looked at his mother. “We might as well tell her.”
“Tell me what?”
Victoria’s fingers stopped moving.
Her son reached across the table and rested his hand over Leah’s. His ring was cold.
“You need rest.”
Leah did not pull away.
“I’m sitting down.”
“Real rest.”
Victoria studied the white roses.
Adrian continued in the patient voice he used during charitable interviews. “You haven’t been yourself. You don’t sleep. You forget things. You’ve been secretive and agitated. Last night you became hysterical over a medical appointment.”
Leah felt the room narrow.
“I became hysterical?”
“You tried to hit me.”
The chef’s assistant returned carrying three plates. He heard the last sentence. His gaze moved from Adrian’s face to Leah’s swollen eye, then down to the plates. He set them in place too quickly, causing sauce to tremble at the edge of Victoria’s porcelain.
No one spoke until the door closed.
Adrian squeezed Leah’s hand.
“I’m not blaming you.”
She stared at him.
Victoria picked up her fork, then put it down.
“What exactly have you arranged?” she asked.
“There’s a place in Massachusetts. Private. Discreet. They deal with exhaustion, anxiety, medication issues.”
“I’m not taking medication,” Leah said.
Adrian continued looking at his mother. “They have an opening tonight.”
The phone at Leah’s waist might as well have begun ringing.
Victoria’s expression remained composed, but color moved slowly into her cheeks.
“Tonight?”
“The car will leave after dinner.”
Leah withdrew her hand from beneath Adrian’s.
“I’m not going.”
He looked at her then.
The room’s silence was filled by distant kitchen noise: a pan striking metal, running water, someone laughing once and stopping.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“This is the kind of reaction I’m talking about.”
“You arranged to send me somewhere without asking me.”
“I called a physician.”
“Which physician?”
“A qualified one.”
“What’s his name?”
He glanced toward the doorway.
The question had not been part of his plan.
Victoria noticed.
“Who did you call?” she asked.
Adrian’s jaw shifted. “Dr. Vale.”
Victoria gave him a long look. “Martin Vale is an anesthesiologist.”
“He sits on the advisory board.”
“Of a surgical center.”
“He knows people.”
Leah watched irritation harden in Adrian’s face. This was not a medical plan. It was a transport plan wrapped in a diagnosis, assembled quickly after he found the radiology card.
“How long am I supposed to stay?” she asked.
“As long as you need.”
“Do they know about my eye?”
He looked at her without blinking.
Victoria reached for her water and missed the stem on the first attempt.
Leah had never seen that happen.
Adrian’s fingers flattened beside his plate.
“You fell.”
“No,” Leah said.
The word was not loud.
The chef’s assistant returned to refill Victoria’s glass and entered a room that seemed physically altered. He stopped just inside the doorway.
Victoria turned toward him.
“We’re fine, Daniel.”
It was the first time Leah had heard her use his name.
He nodded and backed out.
Adrian waited until the door closed.
“What are you doing?”
Leah looked at the white roses. One petal had fallen near the silver bowl.
“I asked whether they know about my eye.”
His chair moved an inch against the rug.
Victoria spoke before he could.
“Adrian, leave it.”
He turned on her. “You wanted her to get help.”
“I said she looked unwell.”
“She is unwell.”
“I did not authorize you to have her removed from the house.”
“Removed?”
“That’s what you’re describing.”
His expression changed. Not to shame. Adrian did not experience shame in front of other people. He experienced betrayal.
“You think I’m doing this for fun?”
“I think you are improvising.”
“I think I’m protecting my wife.”
Leah almost laughed. The impulse rose suddenly and horribly. She covered it by lifting her napkin to her mouth.
Adrian saw.
“What is funny?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re smiling.”
“You told me to.”
Victoria’s eyes closed briefly.
The answer cost Leah. She knew it before Adrian’s face went still. She also knew she would say it again if the moment repeated. Fear did not erase anger. Sometimes it preserved it in odd, sharp pieces.
Adrian pushed back his chair.
“We should talk upstairs.”
Leah did not move.
The burner phone vibrated once against her hip.
All three of them heard it.
Adrian looked toward the sound.
“What was that?”
May you like
Leah’s hand went to her dress.
Victoria’s gaze dropped to the same place.
