Chapter 9 - The Woman in the Blue Coat
Teresa insisted we speak somewhere private.
Veronica arranged a meeting room away from the board offices and asked whether Teresa wanted independent counsel before sharing anything sensitive.
Teresa shook her head.
"I've spent twenty years being told to keep quiet."
She told us that Edwin had once invested in a venture with my grandfather and Victor Kessler.
When the venture collapsed, Edwin blamed my grandfather for everything he lost.
Patricia believed the Hartwell family had stolen the Vances' future.
"She used to say one of us would get it back," Teresa said.
"Get what back?" I asked.
"The money. The house. Your grandfather's respect. She mixed them together until she couldn't tell them apart."
I asked about Mauro.
Teresa looked down at her hands.
"He knew your name before he met you."
The sentence hit harder than shouting would have.
"How long before?"
"At least a year."
Veronica asked Teresa how she knew.
Teresa described a family dinner at which Patricia showed everyone a magazine profile of me and suggested Mauro should find a way to meet me.
"I thought it was a cruel joke," she said.
"Then he called you his girlfriend, and nobody laughed."
I remembered Mauro's courtship, all the small coincidences that suddenly felt staged.
The restaurant he loved was the one beside my office.
His favorite charity was the one my company sponsored.
He happened to know the gallery owner whose opening I attended every year.
I pushed my chair back.
"Did he ever love me?"
Teresa's face crumpled.
"I don't know, Rebecca. I wish I did."
That answer was more honest than anything Mauro had given me in months.
She showed us old letters Edwin had written, accusing my grandfather of betrayal.
Some were bitter.
None proved a crime.
Then she produced a copy of an email from Patricia to Mauro, sent three days before our wedding.
The message mentioned a prenuptial agreement.
Patricia called it a temporary obstacle.
Mauro responded with five words.
I'll find another way in.
Veronica asked to retain copies and preserve the metadata.
Teresa agreed.
When she left, she squeezed my hand.
"Don't let them make you feel foolish for wanting to be loved."
I watched her walk toward the elevators.
Then I went to the restroom and cried with the door locked.
I was still there when Veronica knocked.
"Rebecca, Mauro's attorney has filed something."
"Divorce?"
"Yes. And an emergency request concerning the estate."
I dried my face.
"On what grounds?"
"He claims you've unlawfully locked him out of his marital residence and concealed evidence relevant to the proceedings."
May you like
For the first time since the airport call, Mauro had stopped shouting and started using the courts.
