Chapter 19: Two E's

Daniel's POV

I had been a coward at one dinner, and I had thought about it every day for four months.

On Monday morning I got to stand on a courthouse step and fix it.

The Stamford courthouse had a wide stone staircase and a line of reporters at the bottom.

Susannah walked up it in her navy suit, with her lawyer on her left and me on her right.

She did not take my arm.

She had not taken it in public since the lawyer told us about the investigator, and I kept my hands in my pockets.

"There," she said, very low.

Brodie stood at the top of the steps with a folder under his arm.

Alone.

His mother was not with him, and neither was the lawyer in the expensive gray suit.

He had on the blue suit Susannah had paid for.

His face was gray and unshaven.

"Sukey," he said. "We need to talk before this starts."

"We'll talk inside."

"No. Here."

A reporter lifted a camera, and then another.

Brodie noticed and straightened his tie.

"I want to say something to my wife in front of the people who've been so interested in us."

Susannah's lawyer said, "Mr. Kittredge, you can address the court."

"I'll address who I like."

He stepped in front of her, and I stepped half a pace nearer.

"You've turned everyone against me," he said. "My mother's lost the house. My sister won't answer my calls. You did that. You."

"You signed your mother's name to a loan," Susannah said.

"She signed it!"

"You told her it was boring."

A reporter near the front wrote that down.

Brodie's face went dark.

"You can't stand to be wrong," he said. "You've never been able to. Eight years, and you never once let me be the one who knew best."

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