Chapter 3: What Was Inside the Folder
The first photograph was face-up.
Chloe saw it before Julian could cover it.
Her hand went to her mouth.
"Julian." Her voice had changed.
"Is that — is that us?"
He didn't answer her.
His eyes were fixed on Elena.
"Where did you get those?" he said.
"A professional took them." Elena turned to the next page without hurrying.
"This one is dated October fourteenth.
That's the night you told me you were in Hartford for a client dinner." She set it on top of the first.
"You came home smelling like her perfume.
I told myself I was imagining it."
Julian's jaw tightened.
"Elena, you need to put that away.
We are in public."
"I know exactly where we are."
"People can see —"
"Let them." She turned another page.
"This is the Gloucester property deed.
Your name only.
Purchased eighteen months ago using funds from our joint investment account." She looked up at him.
"I helped build that account, Julian.
Every client I brought to the firm.
Every late night I worked while you were at the gym.
That money was half mine."
Chloe shifted in her seat.
"Julian, what is she talking about?
What property?"
He turned to Chloe sharply.
"Not now."
"Don't speak to her like that," Elena said.
Both of them looked at her.
"She didn't know about me any more than I knew the full truth about her," Elena said.
"That's on you."
Chloe's eyes moved between them.
Something was settling over her face — not guilt, not anger.
Something closer to the slow, cold recognition of having been used.
Julian lowered his voice to almost nothing.
"Elena.
I will fix this.
Whatever you think you know, I can explain every one of those transfers.
It was for us.
I was building something for us."
"A house in Gloucester for the two of you."
"That is not what it was."
"The deed has your name.
The surveillance report has your words." Elena closed the folder.
"Your exact words, Julian.
Shall I read them to you?"
He said nothing.
She opened to the final page of the investigator's report and read aloud, quietly, the way she might read a recipe.
"'Subject repeatedly reassures the associate that his marriage is completely over and that they will be starting a new life together shortly.'"
The man in the seat across the aisle had stopped pretending to read his magazine.
Julian leaned close.
"Keep your voice down."
"I am keeping my voice down." Elena refolded the report along its original crease.
"My attorney's name is Patricia Hale.
She filed a motion this morning to freeze the joint accounts pending divorce proceedings.
By the time we land in Miami, the Gloucester property will be flagged as a marital asset under dispute." She tucked the folder into her bag.
"You should probably call your lawyer."
Chloe stood up abruptly.
"I need to use the restroom."
She didn't come back for forty minutes.
When she did, she sat down without looking at Julian.
She put her earbuds in.
She turned toward the window.
Julian stared straight ahead for a long moment.
Then he turned to Elena.
"You planned all of this."
"Yes."
"How long?"
"Long enough."
He exhaled slowly.
When he spoke again, his voice had lost the smooth, managed quality it always carried.
What was underneath it was smaller.
"Elena.
We can handle this privately.
We don't need lawyers and courts and —"
"We needed honesty two years ago," she said.
"We're past privately."
He was quiet for a moment.
Then: "What about Maya?"
Elena looked at him directly for the first time since sitting down.
"Don't," she said.
"Do not use her name right now."
He looked away first.
The plane crossed out over the Atlantic coastline.
Below them, the water was flat and grey and enormous.
Elena took out her book.
She had not read a single page of it in three weeks.
She found her place and began to read.
Julian did not speak again for the rest of the flight.
But when they landed, he made a phone call before they reached the gate.
Elena watched him step aside, his back to her, his voice low and urgent.
May you like
She didn't need to hear the words.
She already knew who he was calling.
