Chapter 12 - A HOUSE BUILT OUT OF PAPER
I didn't answer Victoria. I saved the message and put my phone facedown.
Laura read it the next morning.
"It doesn't prove anything," she said.
"I know."
"And we aren't going after somebody's medical records without a legitimate reason. Don't start treating her like a puzzle to solve."
"Okay."
"Erin."
"I said okay."
She handed me a cup of tea and let me be annoyed with her for two minutes.
The next few weeks were made of unglamorous things: checking invoices, meeting the doctor, eating toast when nausea was bad, signing sworn statements, arguing about whether I could afford to keep two employees on payroll. I didn't always behave well.
I snapped at Maddy for ordering the wrong envelopes and apologized ten minutes later. I forgot a client meeting and paid the refund out of my savings. One night I drove past the Bennett estate and sat across the street watching the east-wing lights burn until a security car slowed beside me.
"You need to go home," the guard said gently.
"I know."
At the property hearing, Diane's lawyers called the disputed loan a misunderstanding involving electronic authorization. Nia produced the original account instructions, the delivery-address changes, and a copy of the consent form bearing my bad imitation of a signature.
There was no courtroom speech that solved it. The judge ordered further records preserved and stopped the disputed collateral arrangement from being enforced while the challenge continued. The lawyers would still have to prove who did what.
Outside the courtroom, Diane caught my eye.
"You could have had a beautiful life," she said.
"I did," I answered. "Parts of it. That's why this hurts."
She looked thrown by that. Maybe she'd expected me to say something cruel. I had plenty prepared, but I was tired of giving her exactly the fight she wanted.
Later, Alex's attorney sent Laura a proposed settlement. It offered me a generous amount of money in exchange for a fast, private divorce, confidentiality about the affair and the fall, and a promise not to pursue the disputed business records.
"They want to buy silence," I said.
"They want certainty," Laura replied. "They can want it. You don't have to agree."
We crossed out the clauses that treated my testimony like something for sale.
That night, Victoria appeared outside my office alone. No red coat. No photographers. Just a woman with swollen ankles and eyes that looked as tired as mine felt.
"I need to tell you something," she said.
Maddy moved toward the door. I held up one hand. "You can say it here. With her staying."
Victoria looked down at the sidewalk.
"Before I came back to Alex, I was seeing Luke Dane. We broke up. Then Alex and I started again. The dates were close."
"How close?"
She shrugged. "Close enough."
I waited.
"I told Alex I was certain," she said. "I wasn't."
The street noise filled the space between us. A bus pulled away from the stop, hissing against the curb.
"Why are you telling me?"
"Because I wanted you to know I got him back. And now I don't even know what that means."
For once she didn't wait for me to answer. She walked away, one hand braced under her stomach.
May you like
Five minutes later, Laura called with an update: Alex had authorized a voluntary prenatal paternity test after Victoria admitted the uncertainty.
The results would arrive on the morning of the gender reveal.
