Chapter 10 - I HAD MOCKED MY OWN WIFE’S WORK
I remembered the pitch.
Of course I did.
Bennett Biomedical wanted to integrate our logistics platform into hospital discharge systems.
I called the proposal conservative.
Old-fashioned.
Too focused on patients instead of scale.
I actually used those words.
Too focused on patients.
Claire had written the underlying proposal.
Not alone.
But substantially.
And she listened to me complain over dinner about “some healthcare company that didn’t understand innovation.”
She never told me.
Why?
I asked her during our next parenting exchange.
She was fastening Hope into a stroller.
“Why didn’t you say it was your proposal?”
Claire looked up.
“Would it have changed your review?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s why.”
The answer embarrassed me.
“You wanted an honest evaluation.”
“I wanted the company evaluated without being married to you.”
“And I rejected it.”
“Yes.”
“Was I wrong?”
She considered.
“Some of your criticisms were valid.”
That almost hurt more.
Even now, she did not need to make me stupid to make herself right.
“But the proposal changed after your feedback,” she continued. “We partnered with another firm.”
“How did it go?”
“We launched last month.”
She pulled a blanket over Hope.
“Four hospital networks signed.”
I nodded.
“Congratulations.”
She looked surprised.
Maybe because I had spent years treating her success like a threat I did not know existed.
“Thank you.”
The silence afterward was not comfortable.
But it was clean.
I told her my company fired me.
“I heard.”
“From who?”
“Rebecca.”
“Of course.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire’s face closed slightly.
“For what?”
Everything.
That answer would have been easy.
Too easy.
“For making you carry Hope alone while I convinced myself work was more important.”
She said nothing.
“For stealing from our savings.”
Still nothing.
“For cheating.”
Her eyes dropped.
“For telling Samantha things about you that should have stayed inside our marriage.”
That made her look back at me.
“For turning your exhaustion into an inconvenience to me.”
My throat tightened.
“And for coming home with gifts for another woman after refusing to pay for someone to help you sleep.”
Claire’s eyes became wet.
But she did not cry.
Neither did I.
Finally, she said:
“Thank you for saying the specific things.”
I understood.
Generic remorse is cheap.
Specific remorse requires memory.
She pushed the stroller toward Natalie’s house.
I watched them go.
Then Claire stopped.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“Samantha contacted me because she wanted access to something besides money.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“Bennett Biomedical is preparing an FDA submission for a neonatal monitoring device.”
I looked at Hope.
Claire continued.
“She specifically asked whether I still had the prototype data at home.”
Cold moved through me.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
But we learned the next morning.
May you like
Samantha had accepted a consulting contract from a rival medical company four months earlier.
And the affair with me had started three weeks after that.
