Chapter 8 - The Night Before the Terminal
The final fight began at:
10:14 p.m.
Chloe later remembered the time because the dishwasher display showed:
2:46 remaining
after she started a cycle.
Marcus returned home carrying:
Natalie’s suitcase.
Chloe was sitting at the kitchen table.
“Why do you have that?”
Marcus stopped.
No useful lie left.
He said:
“Natalie needs somewhere to stay for a few days.”
Chloe laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s my house too.”
“She is not staying here.”
Marcus put the suitcase down.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t.”
There.
The sentence he had apparently been rehearsing.
Chloe stared.
“What?”
“We’re done.”
“You don’t get to move your girlfriend into our bedroom.”
“We’re separating.”
“Then you can leave.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not leaving my house for your affair.”
The argument escalated.
Not instantly physical.
First:
money.
Marcus claimed he had paid most carrying costs.
Chloe reminded him of:
her down payment.
He said:
“That was years ago.”
Then:
the relationship.
He accused Chloe of:
coldness,
withholding affection,
treating him like an employee.
Some grievances may even have been real.
None justified what came next.
Chloe picked up her phone.
“I’m calling Mom.”
Marcus grabbed it.
“No.”
“Give it back.”
“You turn everything into a federal case.”
That phrase.
He hated my profession even when I was no longer doing:
it.
Chloe reached for the phone.
Marcus shoved her backward.
She hit:
the dining-room wall.
Not catastrophic.
Enough to bruise shoulder and cheek.
She screamed.
Natalie was not in the house yet.
Important.
Marcus then took:
Chloe’s wallet,
phone,
house keys.
Why?
His explanation later:
“She was hysterical and I didn’t want her driving.”
Maybe part of the truth.
Then he ordered:
“Pack.”
Chloe refused.
He dragged a small suitcase from the closet.
Threw in:
some clothes.
Told her:
“Go to your mother.”
She said:
“I’m not leaving.”
He answered:
“Then I’ll call police and tell them you attacked me.”
That threat worked because Chloe had scratched his wrist while trying to get:
her phone.
She became afraid officers would see:
two adults,
one visibly scratched man,
one angry woman
and believe:
him.
Especially because Marcus had been telling friends Chloe was:
unstable.
He drove her to the commuter bus terminal.
Why not my house?
Because he did not want:
me
involved yet.
He told Chloe:
“Take the first bus to Manhattan.”
“Call your mother from there.”
At 3:18 a.m., he left her.
No coat.
No phone.
No wallet.
Thirty-one degrees outside with sleet.
The terminal doors were open.
Heat barely functioning near the entrance.
Chloe used:
a public Wi-Fi kiosk
and a browser-based messaging account she remembered the password to.
That was how she reached:
me.
Marcus returned forty minutes later because he realized:
she might have contacted someone.
May you like
Too late.
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