I read it once and set the phone face-down.
Ava was on the couch, her knees pulled up, watching nothing in particular on the television.
I sat in the armchair across from her.
“He’s not coming back tonight,” I said.
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She nodded slowly.
“Is he going to try to make this go away?”
“He’s going to try,” I said.
“His lawyer will look for every angle.
He’ll try to discredit you.
He’ll try to discredit Marcus.
He may try to make me look unstable.” I looked at her directly.
“Are you prepared for that?”
“I’ve been preparing for it for five years,” she said.
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“Every time I sat across from him at dinner, I was preparing for it.”
I believed her.
Three days later, Daniel’s lawyer sent a formal letter through Patricia.
It was addressed to me.
It offered a private settlement.
No admission of wrongdoing.
A sum of money.
In exchange, Ava would recant her statement and I would withdraw my cooperation with the investigation.
I read it at Patricia’s office.
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When I finished, I set it on her desk.
“No,” I said.
Patricia picked up her pen.
“I’ll draft the response.”
“Make it short,” I said.
She almost smiled.
“I will.”
On the way home, Ava asked what the letter had said.
“He offered money to make it stop,” I told her.
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She was quiet for a moment.
“What did you say?”
“No.”
She looked out the window.
After a long pause, she said: “Chloe would have said the same thing.”
I didn’t answer.
But I reached over and put my hand briefly on hers.
That was enough.
