CHAPTER NINE: RICHARD AT THE DOOR

Richard appeared at my front door the following Tuesday at seven thirty in the evening.
I saw him through the side window before he rang the bell.
He looked older and more tired than he had in our bedroom.
His expensive coat was damp from the rain.
I left the door locked and spoke through the intercom.
“What do you want?”
“We need to talk privately,” he said.
“No.”
“David, you don’t understand what Caroline has done.”
“I understand that you are at my house without an invitation.”
He pressed his palm against the glass.
“She’s going to ruin my daughter’s relationship with me.”
I felt a flash of anger.
“Your relationship with your daughter is your responsibility.”
“She has convinced everyone I’m a monster.”


“You don’t need to explain yourself to me,” I said.
“You need to answer the people investigating your conduct.”
Richard glanced toward the street.
“I can make this separation easier for you,” he offered.
I waited without speaking.
“Jessica has told me what matters to you,” he continued.
“The house, your retirement accounts, the cabin you inherited.”
A chill moved through me.
I had never discussed my inherited cabin with him.
He was telling me that Jessica had shared private financial information during their affair.
“What are you offering?” I asked.
“I can encourage Jessica to agree to reasonable terms.”
“And what would you want in return?”
He looked directly at the intercom camera.
“You tell anyone who asks that Caroline’s statements are unreliable.”
I let the silence continue for several seconds.


“Did you hear yourself?” I finally asked.
“I’m trying to solve everyone’s problems.”
“You’re asking me to undermine your wife in exchange for influence over my divorce.”
Richard stepped closer.
“Be careful how you describe a conversation you can’t prove happened.”
I looked at the camera above the porch.
The recording indicator was illuminated.
“It’s a good thing the front door system stores visitor audio,” I said.
His eyes moved toward the camera.
He turned away without another word.
I saved the recording and contacted Paul Brennan.
I also informed Miriam Shaw that Richard had attempted to approach me about Caroline’s credibility.
Neither attorney sounded surprised.
That bothered me almost as much as the visit itself.

CHAPTER TEN: THE OTHER MARRIAGE

Caroline called two days after Richard’s visit.
She had heard that he approached me and wanted to apologize for the position it placed me in.
“You didn’t send him,” I said.
“No,” she replied.
“But I know how he behaves when he feels cornered.”
She told me that their daughter, Olivia, had finally agreed to meet her for breakfast.
Olivia had spent months refusing calls because Richard claimed Caroline was inventing accusations to gain an advantage in their divorce.
Now Olivia had received a letter from Richard’s attorney that contradicted something her father had told her about their finances.
“She asked why he never let me read the household accounts,” Caroline said.
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth about what I knew and what I didn’t,” she answered.
“She was angry because I couldn’t explain everything.”
I recognized the anger.
People who have been misled often want every missing answer to arrive at once.
Caroline asked whether Jessica had found independent counsel.
“Yes,” I said.
“That’s good.”
I hesitated.
“Do you hate her?”
Caroline was quiet for a moment.
“I don’t trust her,” she said.
“She participated in something that hurt me deeply.”
She took a breath.
“But I don’t need her to suffer in order for what happened to me to matter.”
I stared at the lake from my office window.
“I don’t know whether I’m capable of feeling that way yet.”
“You don’t have to feel it today,” Caroline said.
“And I wouldn’t tell you to forgive someone before you’ve decided what forgiveness would mean.”
We spoke for a few more minutes about ordinary things.
She recommended a walking trail along the lake where she sometimes went when her symptoms made crowded places difficult.
After hanging up, I realized she had never once suggested we use our spouses’ affair to hurt them publicly.
I was beginning to understand how much restraint it took to keep someone else’s cruelty from determining your own character.