Chương 4
“I have you.”
“No. I represent your father and the Hale companies. Our interests may overlap, but they may also conflict.”
Victor opened his mouth.
Naomi looked at him. “Do not argue with me in front of the person whose independent counsel I am recommending.”
He closed it.
Claire stared at the two of them, the family system made visible: Victor trying to control the danger, Naomi controlling Victor, and Claire expected to be grateful for whichever decision remained.
“I’m going home,” she said.
Victor glanced at her gown.
“Not with you,” she added.
Jenna drove Claire to the house she and Adrian had purchased four months earlier in the hills north of town. The dress filled most of the back seat. Claire sat sideways with her knees angled toward the door, holding the skirt away from the floor mats. Neither woman spoke for the first ten minutes.
Traffic moved slowly near downtown. People walked between bars, laughing, unaware that Claire’s wedding was already becoming public entertainment. Her phone vibrated continuously inside Jenna’s handbag. They had placed it there after the twentieth message.
At a red light, Jenna said, “You can stay with me.”
“I need clothes.”
“We can get clothes tomorrow.”
“I need to see the house.”
“Why?”
Claire looked out at a man waiting beside a crosswalk with a pizza box balanced on one hand. The ordinary sight made her throat ache.
“I don’t know.”
Jenna nodded. “Okay.”
The front door of Claire’s house was unlocked.
Adrian had left that morning with his groomsmen. Claire had spent the previous night at the hotel, following a tradition she considered silly but harmless. Now the foyer smelled faintly of cedar cleaner and the cologne Adrian applied too generously when nervous.
Jenna entered first.
“Adrian?” she called, then muttered, “Right. Jail.”
Claire stepped inside. White rose petals clung to the hem of her gown. She took off her shoes and left them beside the door.
The house looked staged because much of it was. Adrian had chosen the furniture through a designer who spoke about sight lines and resale value. The books in the living room had matching neutral jackets. A bowl on the coffee table held polished stone spheres no one had ever touched.
Claire went upstairs.
Their bedroom was immaculate except for Adrian’s watch box, left open on the dresser. One compartment was empty. His travel watch, the inexpensive steel one he wore when he did not want to appear wealthy, was gone.
She opened his closet.
Two suits were missing. So were a duffel bag and several shirts.
Jenna stood behind her. “Maybe he packed for the honeymoon.”
“The honeymoon bags are at the hotel.”
Claire crouched and searched the shoe shelves. An old pair of running shoes remained. Brown loafers remained. The black boots he wore in bad weather were gone.
“He was planning to leave,” she said.
Jenna did not answer.
Claire walked into Adrian’s home office. The desk drawers were locked. The file cabinet was locked. His laptop was gone.
A framed wedding invitation sat on the bookshelf. Their names were embossed in gold above the date. Claire picked it up and turned it facedown.
Her phone vibrated again in Jenna’s bag.
“Let me see.”
“Claire.”
“Please.”
Jenna handed it over.
There were messages from relatives, employees, numbers she did not recognize, reporters, and guests apologizing for videos they had already sent to other people. One clip had been posted publicly. The thumbnail showed Adrian’s arm extended and Victor falling, Claire behind them in white.
The caption read: GROOM DROPS BILLIONAIRE FATHER-IN-LAW OVER WEDDING GIFT.
“That isn’t what happened,” Claire said.
“No.”
“People think it was about a gift.”
“They’ll think something different tomorrow.”
“That isn’t better.”
A message appeared from an unknown number.
This is Daniel Mercer, counsel for Adrian Cross. Adrian asks that you not speak with Victor Hale or his representatives until we can explain the situation. Your father engineered tonight’s events. Adrian is concerned for your legal and financial safety.
Claire read it twice.
Jenna held out her hand. “Give me the phone.”
Claire kept it.
Another message came from Adrian’s mother.
Please don’t abandon him because Victor finally showed you what kind of man he is.
Claire sat at the desk. The wedding dress spread around the chair, ridiculous in the severe gray room.
“What if my father did engineer it?” she asked.
Jenna leaned against the wall. “That doesn’t make Adrian’s documents real.”
“What if they are real?”
“He punched your father.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No. It’s the part you keep stepping around.”
Claire pressed her fingertips against her forehead. “I’m not excusing him.”
“You’re organizing the facts so you don’t have to decide yet.”
“Yes.”
Jenna’s expression changed. “Okay.”
The lack of judgment undid Claire more efficiently than comfort would have. Tears slipped down her face. She covered her mouth because the sound trying to escape embarrassed her. Jenna knelt and pulled the chair away from the desk enough to sit on the floor beside her.
Claire cried without elegance. Her nose ran. Her shoulders shook. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, forgetting the makeup until black streaked across her knuckles.
“I married him,” she said.
“I know.”
“I stood there and married him.”
“You didn’t know.”
“My father did.”
“Your father suspected.”
“He always suspects.”
“Sometimes suspicious people are right. It doesn’t make them pleasant.”
Claire laughed through a breath that hurt. Jenna rested her head against the chair.
After a while, they ordered soup from a twenty-four-hour diner. It arrived with plastic spoons and four packets of crackers. Claire changed into sweatpants and one of Adrian’s old college shirts because her own clothes were packed for the honeymoon. She ate three bites at the kitchen counter, then left the bowl untouched.
At two in the morning, Jenna fell asleep on the sofa.
May you like
Claire returned to Adrian’s office.
She tried the locked desk drawer again. Then she went to the garage, found a screwdriver, and removed the metal plate around the lock. She had watched Victor repair enough ranch equipment to understand that many things presented as permanent were only fastened tightly.
