Chapter 12
“Because he was my father.”
Such a simple sentence.
Such a terrible explanation.
I understood it better than I wanted to.
I had believed Richard too.
Not because the evidence supported him.
Because loving someone made disbelief feel like betrayal.
“I believed my husband,” I whispered.
Alexander looked at me.
“He told me the prenup was standard. He told me I didn’t need my own lawyer. He told me we would never use it anyway.”
Dana immediately frowned.
“You didn’t have independent counsel?”
“No.”
“Did his lawyer explain the agreement?”
“Richard explained it.”
Dana and Alexander exchanged a look.
“What?” I asked.
Dana pulled a chair over.
“This may matter.”
“The judge already ruled.”
“Judges rule based on evidence presented. If there were defects in execution, disclosure, coercion, or representation that weren’t properly raised—”
“My attorney raised everything she could.”
“I’m not criticizing her.”
Dana’s tone stayed gentle.
“But your case moved very quickly. And there may be documents she never had.”
I closed my eyes.
I was exhausted.
Suddenly the trust, the divorce, the box, the key, and Alexander all felt impossibly far away.
“I can’t do this tonight.”
“You don’t have to,” Dana said.
Alexander stood.
“I have a guest apartment near the hospital. It has staff, but they can leave if you’d rather be alone.”
I opened my eyes.
“No.”
He nodded immediately.
“Hotel?”
“No.”
“Shelter?”
“No.”
He waited.
I stared at the rain.
“I want somewhere Richard can’t enter. Somewhere nobody from Vanguard owns. Somewhere nobody expects anything from me.”
Dana considered it.
“I know a place.”
The little furnished apartment belonged to Dana’s older sister, who was spending six months teaching abroad.
It was on the third floor of a narrow brick building above a bakery.
No doorman.
No marble lobby.
No private elevators.
The living room had mismatched cushions and books piled beneath the windows.
It was perfect.
Alexander’s security team checked the locks, then left.
Actually left.
I had expected them to hide in nearby cars, but Dana promised they would only monitor the street if I agreed.
I didn’t.
So they didn’t.
Dana stocked the refrigerator with groceries and wrote her number on a yellow sticky note even though it was already in my phone.
Then she left too.
Alexander remained by the front door.
He looked strangely out of place among the potted plants and family photographs.
I handed him his coat.