Chapter 5 - “I had financing problems on the expansion.”
“Vanessa was pregnant.”
“My mother kept pushing.”
“And every time I came home, you looked at me like you knew I was failing.”
I stared at him.
“I never thought you were failing.”
“You didn’t have to say it!”
His voice rose.
Then he stopped himself.
For the first time, he heard how absurd he sounded.
I spoke softly.
“So you humiliated me because you felt small.”
He looked away.
That was the answer.
I remembered my conversation with Diane.
I had spent a decade protecting him from exactly that feeling.
It had never worked.
You cannot love someone out of an insecurity they are determined to feed.
Everett sank onto the edge of a chair.
“I lost everything in half an hour.”
“No.”
He looked up.
“You lost a title.”
“I lost my company.”
“You lost control of a company you never owned.”
“My house.”
“A house you never owned.”
“My cars.”
“Company cars.”
He stood again.
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Everything I thought was mine was yours!”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“Your talent was yours.”
He froze.
“Your work was yours.”
“Your reputation was yours.”
“Your marriage was yours.”
My voice tightened.
“And you destroyed those things yourself.”
He stared at me.
I continued.
“I gave you opportunities.”
“I gave you protection.”
“I gave you access.”
“But I did not force you to become cruel.”
His eyes filled.
It was the first time I had seen him close to tears since our fifth fertility appointment.
“Can we fix this?”
“No.”
The answer came before he finished asking.
His face collapsed.
“Claire.”
“No.”
“What if I leave Vanessa?”
“That would make you a man abandoning the pregnant woman you publicly called your true love less than twelve hours ago.”
He looked sick.
“I don’t know what I was saying.”
“I do.”
I walked toward the door.
“You were saying what you believed you could say without consequences.”
May you like
He stood motionless.
“That was the most honest version of you I have seen in years.”
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