Chapter 6 - Richard Had Always Hated Her Rules
Elena and Richard married when she was twenty-six.
The marriage lasted nineteen months.
No children.
No grand tragedy.
Richard liked winning.
Elena liked rules that applied after winning.
At first, that difference looked attractive.
He was ambitious, polished, and socially fearless. She was precise, quieter, and still carrying student loans while he was already flipping small commercial properties.
Problems began when Richard asked Elena, then an assistant attorney general, to look over a zoning dispute involving one of his deals.
She refused because the matter touched an agency her office advised.
He called her paranoid.
Months later, he asked whether she could introduce him privately to a judge hearing a property dispute.
She refused again.
“You act like every rule is sacred.”
“No. I act like my job isn’t yours.”
That sentence ended more arguments than the actual divorce paperwork.
Richard married again three years later.
His second wife, Caroline, died from cancer when Max was six.
Elena sent flowers.
They did not speak.
She later married Michael Hart, an ER physician, and had Ava.
Michael died in a car accident when Ava was four.
That loss changed Elena differently than Richard expected.
She became less impressed by appearances.
More patient with real problems.
Less patient with manufactured ones.
Richard, meanwhile, became wealthier.
Sterling Development moved from retail renovations into school facilities, athletics sponsorships, and education partnerships.
Oak Creek became one of its showcase relationships.
Every new field or donor dinner strengthened Richard’s belief that contribution entitled him to influence.
He did not view it as corruption.
He called it partnership.
Principal Harris used the same word.
That was why Richard’s behavior in the office felt familiar to Elena even after twelve years.
The five-thousand-dollar check was the grown-up version of the man who once believed every closed door simply required the right person to owe him something.
The difference now was Max.
An eleven-year-old boy had been watching his father convert money into deference.
And he had learned the lesson perfectly.
My dad funds this school.
I make the rules.
May you like
Richard heard arrogance.
Elena heard inheritance.
