Chapter 5 - TRACY LEARNED THAT SHE HAD BEEN LIED TO TOO
Tracy called me four days after the gala.
I almost ignored her.
Then I remembered her face when she mentioned the second phone.
Fear.
Not smugness.
I answered.
“What?”
She spoke quietly.
“I need to tell you something.”
“You already told a ballroom full of people something.”
“I know.”
“Then tell your attorney.”
“I did.”
I waited.
She continued.
“Joe told me you had agreed to the divorce months ago.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course he did.
“He said the birthday gala was where you wanted to announce it publicly.”
I laughed.
“That was his story?”
“He said you wanted to maintain appearances until after a company board review.”
“Did he mention publicly humiliating me?”
“No.”
“Did he mention forcing a settlement?”
“No.”
“Did you know about the settlement?”
She hesitated.
“I knew there were papers.”
“Not the question.”
“No.”
I believed she did not know all of it.
That did not make her innocent.
“You were sleeping with my husband.”
“Yes.”
“You knew he lived with me.”
“Yes.”
“You knew we attended events as a married couple.”
“He said it was for Tommy and the company.”
I exhaled.
The oldest lie in the world had simply been given better tailoring.
“What about Elm Harbor?”
Silence.
There it was.
“Tracy.”
“I own it.”
“How much did Joe route to you?”
“They were legitimate consulting fees.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“I don’t know the total.”
“Did you know he was approving them?”
“Yes.”
“Did you disclose your relationship?”
“No.”
That mattered.
Potential conflicts are not automatically fraud.
Undisclosed conflicts become serious quickly.
Then Tracy said something unexpected.
“Joe told me the payments would be reviewed after your settlement.”
“Why after?”
“He said once you signed, you’d no longer have standing to challenge how certain company distributions were handled.”
I gripped the phone.
“He told you that?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That was the first completely honest sentence she gave me.
Then she said:
“I thought he was leaving a dead marriage.”
“He was living in my house.”
“I know.”
“He slept in my bed until two nights before the gala.”
Tracy started crying.
I felt no satisfaction.
“Did he tell you Leo was part of some new family presentation?”
She became quiet.
“He said Eleanor wanted to meet him properly.”
Joe’s mother.
That explained why Eleanor had reached toward Leo so eagerly.
Joe had spent months telling Eleanor that our marriage was privately finished.
He had apparently told everyone except me.
Tracy lowered her voice.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Joe said if you signed that night, nobody would ever need the second phone again.”
My anger became cold.
May you like
The affair was real.
But the second phone existed because Joe needed a place where his romantic lies and financial lies could live together.
