Chapter 6 - HE HAD ASKED HOW TO LEAVE ME BEFORE COMING HOME
Adam finally told the truth because there was nowhere left to move.
He had met the lawyer once.
Forty-five minutes.
“No papers were filed.”
“That isn’t the question.”
“I know.”
“What did you ask?”
He closed his eyes.
“How separation would work.”
My stomach tightened.
“Custody?”
“Yes.”
“Nell was two weeks old.”
“I know.”
“Property?”
“Yes.”
“Support?”
“Yes.”
Each answer felt clinical.
Then:
“Why?”
Adam looked at me.
“Because Savannah asked me what I actually wanted.”
Of course.
He had no answer.
So he booked a lawyer.
Then he told himself information was not a decision.
The lawyer apparently told him something that changed his plan.
Leaving immediately after the birth—after disappearing for weeks—would look terrible in any custody discussion.
More importantly, the lawyer advised him that if he wanted meaningful parenting time, he needed to actually parent.
Adam laughed bitterly when repeating it.
“Apparently I needed a lawyer to explain fatherhood.”
No one laughed.
Then I asked:
“Did you plan to come home and pretend?”
“No.”
“What was the plan?”
“I didn’t have one.”
He bought roses at the airport.
He thought he would walk in.
See me.
See Nell.
Then decide.
That was somehow worse.
I had become a choice he planned to make after landing.
Then Bernice said:
“There’s another reason you came back.”
Adam looked at her.
“What?”
She put a printout on the table.
His employer had scheduled an ethics disclosure review.
Three days from now.
Someone anonymously reported that Adam had a financial interest in Sable North.
He had received the email the morning before his flight.
So he came home not only because guilt caught him.
His professional situation had started collapsing.
Adam stared at the email.
“I didn’t know Mom had this.”
“You forwarded it to my old legal address by mistake,” Bernice said.
He actually laughed.
A broken sound.
Everything he hid had returned through forgotten connections.
Then I looked at the anonymous complaint.
It contained details.
Hotel dates.
Sable North equity.
The vendor pitch.
Even the apartment lease.
Someone knew almost everything.
“Savannah?” Elise asked.
Adam shook his head.
“She’d be hurting herself too.”
Bernice said:
“Maybe that doesn’t exclude her.”
True.
Then another possibility emerged.
The person taking photographs.
Who hired them?
I checked the envelope again.
No name.
But the family-law photo had a time stamp.
Whoever followed Adam knew exactly where he would be.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman said:
“Marina Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Rachel Monroe. I work with Savannah.”
Adam stood.
Rachel continued:
“I’m the person who sent the pictures.”
My heart started pounding.
“Why?”
“Because Savannah doesn’t know what Adam has been doing with her company.”
Adam went completely still.
Rachel said:
“And neither do you.”
Then:
“He transferred forty thousand dollars into Sable North yesterday.”
I stared at Adam.
He shook his head.
“I didn’t.”
Rachel answered:
May you like
“It came from an account with your name on it.”
And suddenly even Adam looked afraid.
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