Chapter 12 - The Statement I Never Expected To Give
By one in the morning, lawyers were involved.
So was private security.
Everett didn’t want public scandal at the restaurant, but he also wasn’t going to bury what happened.
I gave a formal statement.
I described the alert, the decanter, the wine glass, the slap, the phone, and everything that followed.
My cheek was still red in the photos they took.
When I finished, I finally felt the exhaustion hit me.
Everett’s attorney asked, “Do you understand how important your timing was tonight?”
I nodded.
But I don’t think I truly did.
Not until Everett answered for me.
“If she hesitated, I drank.”
No one said anything after that.
Marlene was escorted out shortly before two in the morning. She did not look elegant anymore. She looked like what she was: a woman who had gambled too far and lost in full view of the one man whose weakness she had counted on.
As she passed me, she paused.
For one second I thought she might apologize.
Instead she said quietly, “You have no idea what you’ve cost yourself.”
I was tired enough to answer honestly.
“No,” I said. “But I know what I stopped.”
She held my gaze, then walked on.
After she was gone, Everett looked at me and said, “You cost yourself nothing tonight, Tessa.”
Then, after a pause:
“You earned something.”
May you like
I thought he meant respect.
I had no idea how much he meant.
