Chapter 5 - SHE HAD AN EXPLANATION FOR EVERYTHING
Vivienne did not deny changing the camera after Grant showed her the log.
She changed the reason.
“I was checking whether the chandelier glare was affecting the image.”
“At two seventeen?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”
“Because I didn’t remember.”
Grant stared at her across the conference table in his attorney’s office.
Vivienne’s lawyer sat beside her.
Tessa had filed a police report regarding the vase strike.
Vivienne had filed one regarding the slap.
The situation was now bigger than their relationship.
Grant hated that.
He hated what strangers would examine.
The camera.
The house.
His parenting.
His judgment.
Vivienne leaned forward.
“You know what she wants.”
“No.”
“She wants me gone.”
“Why?”
“Because I replaced Emma.”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“Don’t use my wife.”
“Your late wife.”
The correction cut deeper than Vivienne seemed to realize.
“She died, Grant. And you built a museum around her.”
He almost stood.
His attorney touched his arm.
Vivienne continued.
“Tessa runs that house like she still works for Emma. Every decision I make gets compared to someone who isn’t here.”
Grant heard real pain beneath her anger.
That was what made Vivienne difficult to reduce to a monster.
She had lived inside Emma’s shadow.
Family photographs remained everywhere.
Noah’s nursery still contained furniture Emma chose.
Grant still wore his wedding ring on a chain beneath his shirt.
Vivienne had asked him more than once whether there would ever be room for her.
Grant had never given a clear answer.
None of that excused hurting Noah.
But it explained why Tessa had become the symbol of everything Vivienne resented.
Grant asked the question that mattered.
“Did you kick him?”
Vivienne looked insulted.
“No.”
“Tessa says you did.”
“Tessa hit me.”
“After what?”
“After I reached for Noah.”
“Why?”
“Because he was crying.”
Grant studied her.
Vivienne had an explanation for every individual action.
Taken separately, each sounded plausible.
Together, they still felt wrong.
His attorney later asked whether Grant wanted Vivienne formally barred from the property.
Grant hesitated.
That hesitation embarrassed him.
Then his phone rang.
It was his sister, Lauren.
“Are you sitting down?”
“What happened?”
“I got a message from Vivienne last week.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“What kind of message?”
Lauren paused.
“The kind where she asked whether I’d support firing Tessa if there was ‘one more violent incident.’”
Grant sat very still.
“One more?”
“That’s exactly what I asked her.”
Lauren forwarded the message.
May you like
Grant read it.
Vivienne had been anticipating violence before the slap ever happened.
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