Chapter 10: What Pamela Told Me Without Her Daughter
I didn't invite her inside.
We stood at the end of the driveway, the blue sedan between us and the house, the late afternoon light cutting hard across the yard.
"Say what you came to say," I said.
Pamela pulled her coat tighter.
Without the dining room table and the arranged setting, she looked smaller.
Less certain.
"I made a mistake," she said.
"The things I said the other day — about the estate, about Sienna's position.
I was wrong to say them."
"You weren't wrong about what you meant.
Just about saying it out loud."
She flinched.
"I want you to know that I do believe Sienna loves you."
"In what way?"
She looked at me.
"What?"
"In what way does she love me?
Because I've been trying to figure that out for three days, and I keep coming back to the same answer."
Pamela was quiet.
"She told me Derek was nobody," I said.
"How long has she known him?"
Something moved across Pamela's face.
She looked away — toward the house, then back at me.
"They were close in college," she said carefully.
"Were they together?"
A pause that lasted one beat too long.
"Briefly."
"And after?"
"They stayed in touch.
As friends."
"As friends," I repeated.
"Nathan—"
"Did you know she was still in contact with him when we got married?"
Pamela pressed her lips together.
That was its own answer.
"Did you know when she left three days ago, she went to her parents' house — your house — and Derek was texting her the next morning?"
"I didn't know about the texts."
"But you knew about Derek."
She didn't deny it.
I looked at her for a long moment.
The fear I'd seen on her face from the car was still there, underneath the composure.
"Why are you here without Sienna?" I asked.
Pamela took a breath.
"Because she doesn't know I'm here.
And because I think things have gone further than I intended." She met my eyes.
"I pushed her to come back.
I told her to protect her position.
That was wrong.
I was thinking about the money and I wasn't thinking about—" She stopped.
"About what?"
"About what kind of person that made her look like.
What kind of person it made me look like."
I waited.
"I don't want her to lose her marriage over this," Pamela said quietly.
"Whatever she's done — whatever I've encouraged — I don't want that."
"That's not your decision anymore."
"I know." She looked at her hands.
"I know that."
The crow from Gerald's fence post appeared in my mind for a moment, sitting perfectly still.
"Pamela," I said, "if Sienna wants to talk to me, she knows where I am.
But I need her to come alone.
No strategy.
No positioning.
Just her."
Pamela nodded.
She walked back to the blue sedan, got in, and drove away without looking back.
I stood in the driveway until the car disappeared around the corner.
Then I went inside, sat at the kitchen table, and called the family law attorney Whitfield had referred me to.
Her name was Carol Reyes.
She picked up on the second ring.
"Mr.
Calloway," she said.
"James told me to expect your call.
Tell me everything."
I did.
When I finished, she was quiet for a moment.
May you like
"All right," she said.
"Here's where you stand."
