Chapter 6: Diane Comes to the Door
I was staying at my friend Renata's apartment in Wicker Park — a two-bedroom on the third floor that smelled like coffee and old paperbacks.
Renata had cleared her spare room without asking a single question, set up the travel cot for Lily, and left a bottle of wine and a note on the kitchen counter that said only: *You don't have to explain anything.
I'm here.*
I had not cried yet.
I kept waiting for it and it kept not coming.
Saturday morning, Lily was eating toast at the kitchen table and I was on my second coffee when the intercom buzzed.
Renata was at work.
I crossed to the panel.
"Yes?"
"Emily." Diane's voice.
Controlled, almost warm.
"I'd like to talk.
Just the two of us."
My hand stayed on the intercom button for a moment.
"There's nothing to talk about, Diane."
"I think there is.
I think you're making decisions based on anger and I understand that.
I was angry too, at your age.
But what you're doing to this family—"
"What I'm doing."
"—will hurt Lily more than anyone.
A child needs her father.
A child needs her family.
You're going to drag us through a court process that will be in the news, that will follow Lily her entire life, and for what?
Because I lost my temper for one moment at my own birthday dinner?"
I pressed the button.
"You left a mark on my two-year-old daughter's face that a doctor photographed and filed a mandatory report on.
That's not a moment.
That's a record."
Silence.
Then: "I want to offer you something.
Come down and let me offer it to you face to face.
Woman to woman.
No attorneys."
"Anything you want to offer me, you can offer through Carol Voss."
"Emily." The warmth was gone now.
"I have been generous with you for three years.
I have been patient.
I brought you into a family with resources and connections you never would have accessed on your own.
I made Jason marry you when his father wanted him to wait.
I did that for you."
Something cold moved through me.
"You made Jason marry me."
"I supported the marriage.
When others didn't."
"Say what you mean, Diane."
A pause.
"Come downstairs."
"No."
"Then I'll say it here." Her voice dropped.
"I have a letter.
Written by you.
To a man who is not my son.
Written eight months into your marriage.
I've had it for two years and I have never used it.
I'm offering you the chance to settle this quietly before I do."
The intercom crackled.
Lily looked up from her toast.
"Mama?"
"It's okay, baby." I kept my voice level.
"Finish your toast."
I pressed the button one last time.
"Send the letter to Carol Voss," I said.
"She'll explain to you why a private letter with no criminal content is not a legal instrument and why attempting to use it as leverage in a custody proceeding is called coercion." I released the button.
"Goodbye, Diane."
I heard her say one more word before the intercom cut out.
The word was: *Careful.*
I went back to the kitchen table and sat down across from Lily.
She offered me a piece of toast.
I took it.
My hands were not shaking.
But I picked up my phone and called Carol anyway.
"She came in person," I said when Carol answered.
"What did she offer?"
"First, money.
Then a threat.
A letter she claims I wrote to another man."
Carol was quiet for two seconds.
"Is the letter real?"
"There was a man.
A colleague.
We had coffee three times.
Nothing happened.
I wrote him one email that could be read the wrong way if you wanted to read it the wrong way."
"Does it matter what actually happened?"
"No," I said.
"What matters is what a letter like that looks like in a courtroom."
"Correct." Another pause.
"She's going to file a counter-petition.
Probably Monday, same day we file.
She'll allege marital misconduct to muddy the custody picture."
"Can she win with it?"
"Not if we move first and move right." Carol's voice was steady.
"Emily, I need you to tell me everything about that email.
Every word you remember.
Tonight."
May you like
I looked at Lily, who had gone back to her toast, humming something tuneless and content.
"I'll call you in an hour," I said.
