Chapter 5: The Leverage
I didn't sleep that night.
Daniel and I drove home in separate silences.
He tried twice to start a conversation.
I kept my eyes on the window and watched the streetlights pass.
When we got inside, I went upstairs.
I heard him pour a drink in the kitchen.
I heard him sit down.
I heard him not come up.
I lay on top of the covers with my shoes still on and stared at the ceiling.
Four years.
On and off.
While she was with Jason.
While Daniel built his company.
While I was somewhere else entirely, living a life I thought I understood.
And then I thought about Jason.
Jason, who had spent an entire evening flirting with a woman he didn't recognize, mocking his own wife to her face, suggesting they go somewhere quieter.
Jason, who had screamed when he saw Daniel.
Not from embarrassment.
From something sharper than that.
From the sudden understanding that the woman he'd been flirting with was his leverage's wife.
I sat up.
In the morning, Daniel was already at the kitchen table when I came downstairs.
He looked like he hadn't slept either.
"I want to know everything," I said.
"Not the version that protects you.
Everything."
He wrapped both hands around his coffee cup.
"Sit down."
I sat.
"When I started the company," he said, "I made some decisions that weren't legal.
Not violent, not — nothing that hurt anyone directly.
Financial.
Reporting irregularities.
I was trying to keep the company alive and I cut corners I shouldn't have."
"How bad?"
"Bad enough that if it came out now, the company would be investigated.
I could face charges."
"And Jason found out."
"Katherine told him.
I don't know when.
I don't know if she did it on purpose or if it slipped out during — during whatever they were." He stopped.
"But yes.
Jason has known for about three years."
"And in exchange for his silence, you gave him a job."
"A good job.
Good salary.
Good title."
"Does he have documentation?
Proof?"
Daniel looked at his cup.
"He has emails.
Old ones.
From when I was trying to sort out the mess I'd made.
I was stupid enough to put things in writing."
I thought about Jason at the reunion.
The way he'd watched Daniel.
The way he'd looked at me after he understood who I was.
Not threatened.
Satisfied.
Like a man who had just realized his insurance policy had gotten better.
"He's been blackmailing you for three years," I said.
"I wouldn't use that word."
"What word would you use?"
Daniel didn't answer.
I stood up and walked to the window.
The garden was bright in the morning light.
Ordinary.
Unchanged.
"He came to the reunion knowing you might be there," I said.
"He knew you'd be with me.
And when he didn't recognize me and started flirting with me—" I turned around.
"He had no idea who I was.
But you did.
You knew exactly who Katherine was the moment she walked over."
"Yes."
"So last night — when you came over and put your arm around me — was that for me?
Or was that to remind Jason what he's sitting on?"
Daniel looked up.
His expression was the most honest it had been since the night before.
"Both," he said.
I nodded slowly.
"All right," I said.
"Then here's what's going to happen.
You're going to tell me where those emails are.
Every copy.
Every backup.
And then you're going to call a lawyer — not your company lawyer, a personal one — and you're going to tell them everything before Jason decides to stop being patient."
"Emily—"
"Because whatever Jason is holding, the only thing worse than it coming out on your terms is it coming out on his." I picked up my coffee.
"And I am not going to spend the rest of my marriage watching you flinch every time that man walks into a room."
Daniel stared at me.
"You're not leaving," he said.
It wasn't a question.
"I don't know yet," I said.
"But right now I'm trying to keep you out of prison.
We can talk about the rest later."
My phone buzzed on the counter.
I glanced at the screen.
A text from an unknown number.
*Last night was interesting, Emily.
Tell Daniel I said hello.
May you like
We should all have dinner sometime.
— J*
