Chapter 2 - The Papers in the Drawer
Adrian had no answer.
That was the problem.
For years, answers had been his specialty.
Numbers. Threats. Contracts. Routes. Enemies.
Give Adrian Cross a collapsing company and he could tell you which division to sell before breakfast. Give him an enemy with three warehouses and six lieutenants and he could identify the weakest link before dinner.
But ask him why he had spent two years watching the woman he loved disappear one quiet inch at a time?
Nothing.
The sedan stopped outside their Gold Coast townhouse.
Zara reached for the door.
“Wait.”
She froze.
Adrian hated the fact that the single word sounded like an order.
He softened his voice.
“Please.”
That got her attention.
Zara slowly looked at him.
“Did Adrian Cross just say please?”
“I know the word.”
“You haven't demonstrated that often.”
“Come upstairs.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“There's something you need to see.”
They entered separately.
The townhouse was silent except for the grandfather clock in the foyer.
Zara removed her heels and carried them upstairs.
Adrian followed.
The red dress whispered against the stairs.
It occurred to him that she had once walked these same steps barefoot at two in the morning, carrying two bowls of terrible homemade ice cream because neither of them could sleep.
He remembered everything.
That was another lie he had told himself.
He had not forgotten his wife.
He had simply buried every memory beneath work until remembering no longer required him to act.
His private office occupied the rear corner of the third floor.
Adrian unlocked it.
Zara remained at the threshold.
“I haven't been inside this room in almost a year.”
“I know.”
“Of course you know.”
He opened the desk drawer.
The envelope was exactly where he had left it.
Adrian removed it and placed it on the desk.
Zara looked at his face.
Then the envelope.
“What is that?”
He pushed it toward her.
She opened it.
For several seconds, she did not move.
Then Adrian watched the color disappear from her face.
Petition for Dissolution of Marriage.
His signature waited at the bottom.
Zara read every page.
She did not cry.
He almost wished she would.
Anger he understood.
Tears he might survive.
This terrifying stillness was worse.
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
Her fingers tightened around the papers.
“You signed these two days ago?”
“Yes.”
“And tonight you put your hand around my waist because Graham hugged me?”
“Yes.”
She laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“That might be the most spectacularly selfish thing you've ever done.”
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
She threw the papers onto the desk.
“You were going to divorce me without even having one honest conversation.”
“I thought you wanted out.”
“Did I say that?”
“No.”
“Did I ask for a divorce?”
“No.”
“Did I tell you I stopped loving you?”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
“Then whose decision was this?”
“Mine.”
“Exactly.”
She turned away.
Adrian caught himself before reaching for her.
“What did you want me to do, Zara?”
She spun around.
“Fight.”
The word shattered something.
“Once,” she whispered. “Just once, I wanted you to fight for something that wasn't a company, a contract, a piece of territory, or your pride.”
Adrian stared at her.
“You think I didn't fight for you?”
“I think you protected me.”
Her eyes shone now.
“That isn't the same thing.”
“You were threatened because of me.”
“And there it is.”
She stepped closer.
“The excuse you have used for two years.”
“It wasn't an excuse.”
“No? Then tell me what happened.”
Adrian went silent.
Zara's expression hardened.
“Tell me why six weeks after someone shot at our car, you stopped sleeping beside me.”
His eyes shifted.
“Tell me why you moved meetings out of the house. Why you stopped taking me to events. Why you started talking to me like I was an employee whose job description was being alive.”
“Because you almost died!”
His voice struck the walls.
Zara flinched.
Adrian immediately hated himself.
He lowered his voice.
“The bullet missed your head by four inches.”
“I remember.”
“I held you on the pavement while glass was falling out of your hair.”
“I remember that too.”
“I couldn't breathe.”
The confession came unexpectedly.
Zara stopped.
Adrian looked away.
“I thought you were dead.”
Silence.
“For three seconds,” he continued, “you didn't answer me.”
His voice had become almost inaudible.
“I have experienced things I wouldn't tell you about if you asked me for the next fifty years. None of them frightened me like those three seconds.”
Zara's anger weakened.
But it did not disappear.
“So you punished me for surviving?”
Adrian looked at her.
“No.”
“You decided loving me was dangerous, so you stopped showing it.”
He had no defense.
“You made our marriage so lonely that eventually I stopped asking where you were.”
Her first tear fell.
“You were afraid of losing me, Adrian.”
Another tear.
“So you made sure I lost you first.”
He closed his eyes.
There it was.
The truth.
Simple enough to fit inside one sentence.
Brutal enough to dismantle two years of excuses.
Zara wiped her cheek.
“I'm sleeping in the guest room.”
“You don't have to.”
“I know.”
She walked toward the door.
“Zara.”
She stopped without turning.
Adrian looked at the divorce papers.
Then at his wife.
“I won't file them.”
Her shoulders stiffened.
“That isn't your decision anymore.”
She left.
At 2:17 a.m., Adrian was still sitting behind his desk when his phone vibrated.
Marcus.
Adrian answered.
“What?”
“We've got a problem.”
“Define problem.”
“Someone accessed your legal server yesterday.”
Adrian straightened.
“Which files?”
A pause.
“The divorce documents.”
Adrian's expression changed.
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
“Find out.”
“I’m trying.”
Marcus hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
Adrian waited.
“The access occurred before you signed them.”
Cold moved through him.
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
Adrian looked at the papers.
“What exactly was accessed?”
“Not exactly.”
Marcus exhaled.
“Someone uploaded something.”
Adrian turned toward his computer.
“What?”
“An amendment.”
He opened the secure server.
One unfamiliar document sat beneath the divorce petition.
Adrian clicked it.
A photograph appeared.
Zara.
Leaving the Pilsen literacy center.
Beside her stood Graham Vale.
May you like
Underneath was one sentence.
DIVORCE HER BEFORE SHE LEARNS WHY HER FATHER REALLY DIED.
