Chapter 8: Jason Comes Alone
He called Wednesday evening and asked if he could come.
Not to the condo — he knew I wasn't there.
He had found out through Brooke, who had found out through someone at Renata's gym.
He asked if he could come to wherever I was.
I said yes.
I don't know exactly why.
He arrived at Renata's apartment at seven.
Renata took Lily to the corner ice cream place without being asked.
The door closed behind them and Jason stood in the small living room holding his car keys, looking at the space around him as if he were trying to understand how his wife had ended up in someone else's apartment with a travel cot visible through the open bedroom door.
"Sit down, Jason."
He sat.
He had a bruise along his jaw that had gone greenish at the edges.
He looked like he hadn't slept.
"I didn't know about the account," he said.
"I know."
He looked up.
He hadn't expected that.
"Your mother used you," I said.
"She put your name on a financial instrument she designed and directed and you signed it because you sign whatever she puts in front of you, the same way you assumed I would always sign whatever you put in front of me." I kept my voice even.
"The difference is that I read things before I sign them."
"Emily—"
"I'm not finished." I waited.
"Paull is cooperating with the investigation.
He has emails from your mother directing the transfer.
Your name is on the account but her fingerprints are on everything underneath it.
Your attorney already knows this.
That's why they offered me the custody deal on Friday — they were trying to contain the financial exposure before it became a separate legal matter."
Jason's keys made a small sound in his hand.
"She told me it was an investment," he said.
"A family investment.
She said you had agreed to it."
"She told you I agreed."
"Yes."
"And you didn't ask me."
He looked at the floor.
That was its own answer.
"Jason." I leaned forward.
"I need you to understand something.
I don't hate you.
I spent three years being angry at you and I think most of that anger was really grief — grief that you kept choosing her over us and I kept hoping you would stop." I stopped.
"But I can't grieve that anymore.
I have a daughter whose face has a doctor's report attached to it.
That's what I have to think about now."
"I would never have let Mom—"
"You were six feet away."
The room went quiet.
"I know," he said.
His voice had changed.
Something in it had gone flat and honest in a way I had not heard before.
"I know I was."
"The DCFS caseworker is coming Friday," I said.
"They'll want to speak with you as well.
I need you to tell them the truth about what you saw.
All of it."
He nodded.
"And Jason." I waited until he looked at me.
"If you cooperate with Carol's investigation into the account — if you provide your own statement about what your mother told you and what you signed — your attorney can use that to separate you from the fraud.
You were a victim of it too.
But you have to decide that now, before this goes further."
He was quiet for a long time.
"What happens to Lily?" he asked.
"If I cooperate.
What happens to us seeing her?"
"That depends on you.
Not on me.
Not on your mother.
On what you do in the next seventy-two hours."
He stood up.
He put his keys in his pocket.
At the door, he turned back.
"The letter," he said.
"The one Mom said she had.
She showed it to me.
I read it." He paused.
"It was nothing, Emily.
I knew it was nothing the moment I read it.
I told her that."
"What did she say?"
"She said it didn't matter what it actually was.
She said it only mattered what it looked like."
He left.
I sat in Renata's living room for a long time after the door closed.
May you like
Then I picked up my phone and called Carol.
"Jason is going to cooperate," I said.
