Chapter 2 - THE CONTRACT JULIAN NEEDEDElena left without packing.
She took her purse, her phone, and the keys to her Lexus.
Nothing else.
Julian followed her downstairs.
“Elena.”
She kept walking.
“Will you stop acting insane for thirty seconds?”
She turned at the front door.
Her cheek was burning.
“My husband hit me while his girlfriend watched, and I’m the one acting insane?”
Victoria had followed them as far as the staircase.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Julian said.
Victoria’s expression shifted.
Elena almost laughed.
“Interesting choice of defense.”
Julian lowered his voice.
“You don’t understand what you photographed.”
“Then explain it.”
He glanced toward Victoria.
She looked away.
That tiny exchange gave Elena her answer.
“No,” Julian said. “Not while you’re hysterical.”
Elena opened the door.
He grabbed it before she could close it.
“Do not send that photograph to Merritt & Cole.”
There it was.
Not Don’t tell our families.
Not Please don’t leave.
Not I’m sorry.
Merritt & Cole.
Elena stared at him.
“You just made this much worse.”
She drove twenty minutes to her younger sister Hannah’s condo near Green Hills.
Hannah opened the door wearing sweatpants and carrying a bowl of microwave popcorn.
Her expression changed immediately.
“What happened to your face?”
Elena made it three steps inside before she began shaking.
Hannah put the bowl down.
“Was it Julian?”
Elena nodded.
Hannah reached for her phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
“Wait.”
“No.”
“I need to think.”
“You can think after somebody documents your face.”
That sentence pierced the fog.
Elena let Hannah drive her to an urgent care clinic.
A physician examined the swelling on her cheek, the bruising beginning along her upper arm, and the tenderness in her hip and lower leg.
When asked what caused the injuries, Elena heard herself say:
“My husband.”
The words made the marriage sound different.
Concrete.
Administrative.
Something that could be typed into a medical record.
Afterward, Hannah took her to file a police report.
The process was nothing like television.
Questions.
Times.
Addresses.
Names.
What happened first?
Were there weapons?
Had Julian assaulted her previously?
Elena said no.
Then hesitated.
“He’s shoved me before.”
Hannah turned sharply.
Elena kept looking at the officer.
“Once last Christmas. Once in March.”
“You told me you slipped in March,” Hannah said later in the parking lot.
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted it to be true.”
Hannah did not answer.
At her condo, Elena finally opened the photograph again.
She enlarged the blue folder.
The visible corner showed the Merritt & Cole project code.
CH-27.
Cumberland House.
A historic downtown Nashville hotel being converted into a luxury mixed-use property.
Elena was senior development manager for Merritt & Cole and had spent fourteen months on the project.
Julian’s construction company, Ward Collaborative, was one of five finalists for the interior build-out contract.
The moment his firm entered the process, Elena disclosed the marriage and removed herself from all scoring, pricing, and vendor-selection discussions.
Victoria had been brought in precisely because Merritt & Cole wanted an outside procurement consultant overseeing that portion of the process.
Elena looked at her sister.
“Hannah.”
“What?”
“Julian’s company is in trouble.”
“You know that?”
“I suspected.”
Ward Collaborative had lost two major projects that spring.
Julian had refinanced equipment.
He had stopped talking about bonuses.
Twice, Elena had covered their mortgage payment when his transfer arrived late.
But Cumberland House was different.
The contract was worth more than eleven million dollars.
Winning it could keep Ward Collaborative alive.
Losing it could expose how close the company was to collapse.
Hannah sat beside her.
“And Victoria decides who wins?”
“Not by herself.”
“But she sees the bids?”
“Yes.”
“All of them?”
Elena looked again at the blue folder.
“Everything Julian isn’t supposed to see.”
Her phone vibrated.
A message from Julian.
Do not ruin two careers because you’re angry about our marriage.
Thirty seconds later another arrived.
You’re involved too, whether you understand that yet or not.
Elena read it twice.
May you like
The affair had already given her a reason to leave.
That second message gave her a reason to wonder whether Julian had prepared a way to keep her from doing it.
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