“Fine.
Congratulations.
You proved you’re capable of hiring people to spy on me.
What do you want? An apology?”
Audrey stared at him.
Seven years earlier, at the charity gala, Matthew’s attention had made her feel as if the rest of the room had disappeared.
Now she understood that sensation differently.
Matthew did not always see people.
He saw acquisitions.
Things that became valuable once they were his.
“No,” she said.
“I stopped waiting for an apology weeks ago.”
She reached into the white box for the third folder.
This one was thin.
Matthew’s gaze fixed on it.
Corrine stepped between two chairs.
“Audrey, think very carefully about whatever you’re about to do.”
Audrey looked at her mother-in-law.
“I already did.”
“You’re weeks from having a child.”
“I know.”
“A child needs stability.”
Brenda finally spoke.
“A child needs adults who don’t bring their affairs to baby showers.”
“Brenda,” Corrine said sharply.
“No.
You’ve had seven years to say her name like she’s family.
You don’t get to use mine like I’m staff.”
Audrey touched Brenda’s arm.
It was enough.
Her sister stepped back, still glaring.
Matthew pointed at the third folder.
“What’s in there?”
Audrey removed the papers.
“The part you kept telling me to think about.”
“What does that mean?”
“The baby.”
For the first time, something other than anger crossed his face.
Real alarm.
“You are not keeping my child from me.”
Audrey’s voice stayed level.
“I have never said that.
I would never use our child as punishment.”
The distinction seemed to disorient him.
He had been preparing to fight an accusation she had not made.
“Then what are those?”
“A copy of the divorce petition my attorney filed this morning.”
No one moved.
Matthew stared at the papers.
The woman beside him lowered her eyes.
Corrine sat down slowly.
Audrey’s attorney, who had been standing near the edge of the gathering, stepped forward just enough to be seen.
“The originals were filed through the proper process,” Audrey said.
“That copy is for you to read when you’re ready.”
Matthew looked at the attorney, then at Diana, then at the folders on the table.
He seemed to understand all at once that the previous three months had not been Audrey avoiding reality.
