Chương 10
Victor said nothing.
“Did you tell him Thomas never hit her?”
“I wasn’t in their house.”
“Melissa was.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Melissa was weak.”
“Maybe.”
Elena stood.
“She also raised me.”
“I helped pay for that.”
“There it is.”
Victor stared at her.
She opened the door.
“Leave.”
He did.
That afternoon, Elena called Joanne Meyers again.
Joanne refused again.
Elena did not threaten her.
She mailed copies of the returned letters.
Two days later Joanne called.
“I recognize the handwriting.”
Elena gripped the phone.
“Whose?”
“Victor’s.”
“On the envelopes?”
“Yes.”
“Can you prove it?”
“No.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Joanne continued.
“But I can tell you something else.”
“What?”
“He kept a closed file.”
“Meaning?”
“A file not entered in the normal client archive.”
“Why?”
“Because lawyers are people.”
“That isn’t helpful.”
“It’s more helpful than you think.”
Joanne gave a dry laugh.
“People hide things badly when they believe the hiding place makes them important.”
“Where was it?”
“His private storage.”
“Does it still exist?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer almost broke Elena.
Of course she did not know.
Nothing came clean.
Nothing came complete.
No witness arrived carrying the whole truth.
“Why didn’t you say anything then?”
Joanne was quiet.
“I had two children in college and a mortgage.”
Elena sat down.
There it was again.
Human cowardice in ordinary clothes.
“I’m sorry,” Joanne said.
Elena believed she meant it.
That did not make it useful.
Damien found the storage account.
Not because fate helped them.
Because Victor’s family office had paid the same warehouse company for twenty-three years, and Damien had access to the expense ledger.
The unit was in New Jersey.
Victor controlled it.
They could not simply break in.
Damien suggested asking him.
Elena laughed.
Thomas suggested a lawyer.
That was the first useful idea.
They hired an attorney unaffiliated with Cross Meridian and spent two days reviewing options.
Because the trust had once belonged to Elena, she had standing to request accounting records from the former trustee.
Because Victor had retained some documents after his fiduciary role ended, a formal demand could force disclosure.
Not overnight.
Not cleanly.
The lawyer warned it might take months.
Elena felt something collapse.
“I don’t have months.”
“Why not?”
She did not know.
The lawyer looked at her.
“Because this feels urgent is not the same as it being legally urgent.”
Elena hated her.
Then hired her.
Victor responded to the records demand within forty-eight hours through counsel.
He denied wrongdoing.
He offered a confidential settlement.
Two hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Thomas laughed when Elena told him.
“That’s almost insulting.”
“Almost?”
“He’s getting generous with age.”
Damien did not laugh.
He had moved into the guest room.
They were living together again because avoiding each other required more energy than Elena had.
They did not sleep together.
They ate dinner twice.
The first time they argued over Victor.
The second time they discussed whether the dishwasher had always made that noise.
It was the strangest period of their relationship.
One night Damien stood in the kitchen eating cereal at midnight.
Elena walked in.
“That was our wedding gift.”
He looked at the bowl.
“The cereal?”
“The bowl.”
“Oh.”
“From my board chair.”
Damien examined it.
“Should I stop?”
“No.”
He ate another spoonful.
After a moment he said, “I don’t know if you’re going to stay married to me.”
Elena opened the refrigerator.
“No.”
He winced.
“I meant I don’t know either.”
“Oh.”
She took out water.
Damien stared at the cereal.
“My father taught me that information was leverage.”
Elena leaned against the counter.
“I know.”
“He used to say surprises were what happened when someone else did their job better.”
“That sounds like him.”
“I thought it made me prepared.”
“It did.”
Damien looked at her.
“I also thought prepared meant safe.”
She said nothing.
“I did what he taught me to do with Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“I made a decision before you had the information.”
“Yes.”
“I am trying to understand how often I’ve done that.”
Elena swallowed.
“More than once.”
“I know.”
“Don’t say that.”
He almost smiled.
She did too.
The moment hurt.
It was possible to love someone and not trust them.
Elena had never understood that before.
Thomas met Damien for the first time without Elena present eleven days after the wedding.
Neither man told her beforehand.
That caused another argument.
“You both decided I shouldn’t know?”
Thomas rubbed his face.
“When you put it that way—”
“How else should I put it?”
“Bad call.”
Damien said, “I asked him.”
“That somehow makes it better?”
“No.”
“What did you talk about?”
Thomas looked at Damien.
Damien looked at the floor.
Finally Thomas said, “He apologized.”
Elena waited.
“And?”
“I told him I wasn’t the one he owed.”
Damien’s jaw tightened.
Elena looked between them.
“Anything else?”
Thomas scratched his neck where the locket chain had left a fading line.
“He asked whether I was planning to sue.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Thomas shrugged.
“I’ve spent enough of my life arguing with Cross men.”
Damien gave him a look.
Thomas lifted a hand.
“Present company trying to improve.”
Elena noticed the locket was back around Thomas’s neck.
The chain was new.
She stared.
Thomas touched it.
“Jeweler fixed it.”
“Who?”
“Hotel manager gave me a card.”
Damien looked uncomfortable.
“I paid for it.”
Elena stared at him.
Thomas said, “I didn’t know until after.”
“Of course.”
“Should I take it off?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Thomas left it on.
Three weeks after the wedding, Victor’s attorneys produced six boxes of records.
The closed file was not among them.
Elena’s lawyer filed a motion.
Victor’s counsel argued burden, privilege, relevance, and age.
Nothing moved quickly.
Meanwhile, Elena’s marriage acquired the quiet tension of a house with damaged plumbing.
Everything worked until someone turned on the wrong faucet.
Damien started therapy.
He did not announce it dramatically.
Elena discovered because his Tuesday calendar said unavailable.
“What’s that?”
“Therapy.”
May you like
She stared.
“What?”
