Chapter 18: She Refuses to Spend the Company

The reporters are waiting on the courthouse steps when the doors let us out into the cold.

They have been there since Adrian's press conference yesterday.

They have learned which door the parties use.

"Mr. Mercer, the judge denied your motion?"

"Mr. Mercer, did you try to dilute your wife's shares?"

Adrian stops on the top step and buttons his coat.

He finds his public face, but it takes him a second longer than it used to.

"The court has preserved the status quo," he says.

"That is all. We look forward to the full review."

"Ms. Ross," the woman in the red scarf calls.

"You read the motion aloud in the hallway. Do you still support Mr. Mercer?"

Camille comes out behind him with her portfolio under her arm.

She does not answer.

She looks at the back of his head.

Adrian turns.

I watch him decide, in front of eleven cameras, that she is the problem.

"Camille is very emotional right now," he tells the reporters.

"It's the pregnancy. She doesn't understand legal language."

"I understood it fine," Camille says.

He steps down to her and lowers his voice, but the steps are stone and the morning is quiet.

Every microphone gets it.

"You read my filing out loud in a public hallway," he says.

"You were a party planner when I met you. I made you somebody. Go home before you embarrass yourself further."

Camille's face goes white, then very still.

"You made me somebody," she repeats.

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