Chapter 5: The Moment He Stopped Pretending
Jared was home when I got back.
That was unusual.
He was almost never home before seven.
He was standing in the kitchen with his jacket still on, his phone face-down on the counter.
He turned when he heard the door.
"Where were you?" he asked.
"Coffee with a friend." I set my bag down.
"Why?"
"Which friend?"
I looked at him.
"Dana," I said.
"You've met her.
My college roommate."
Something moved across his face.
Too fast to name.
"Eleanor called me," he said.
I walked to the refrigerator and poured a glass of water.
"Did she."
"She said you came to see her.
That you were saying things.
Making accusations." He stepped closer.
"Shelby, what did you tell her?"
"I told her I had questions about my surgery."
"Those questions have answers.
The doctor explained everything.
The file—"
"The file references a lab that doesn't exist in any hospital network," I said.
"And the attending physician's name isn't in my official records.
But it is on a payment record from Eleanor Voss's private LLC."
The kitchen went quiet.
Jared's jaw tightened.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Then explain it to me." I set the glass down.
"Explain Dr.
Marcus Fell.
Explain the voicemail from Harlan House.
Explain why Eleanor Voss was making decisions about my body before I even lost our baby."
"Stop." His voice dropped.
"Stop right now."
"Why?
Because I'm getting close to something you don't want me to find?"
He moved to the counter and gripped the edge with both hands.
"I did what I had to do," he said.
"The board was threatening to remove me.
Eleanor had leverage over half the senior members.
She said if I didn't — if we didn't — manage the situation, she would expose things about my father.
About how he built the company.
Things that would have destroyed everything."
I stared at him.
"So you let her destroy me instead."
"It wasn't like that."
"You authorized surgery on my body while I was unconscious.
You let a man who lost his medical license cut me open.
You stood in that hospital room and cried and told me it was to save my life." My voice didn't shake.
"What was it like, Jared?"
He turned away.
"I was going to fix it.
I was going to make it right."
"How?
How were you going to give me back what they took?"
He didn't answer.
"I want you out of this apartment by Friday," I said.
He spun around.
"Shelby, if you go public with this — if you go to the press or the police — Eleanor will release what she has on my father.
It will ruin everything.
The company, the family name, everything my father built—"
"Your father is gone," I said.
"And whatever he did, he did.
That's not my problem anymore."
"I'm asking you to think about what you're doing."
"I've thought about nothing else for six days." I picked up my bag.
"Friday, Jared."
I walked to the bedroom and closed the door.
He stood in the kitchen for a long time.
I could hear him breathing through the wall.
Then I heard him pick up his phone.
May you like
And I heard him say one name.
Eleanor.
