He Chose Her. I Chose Divorce novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: On the Record

Maggie's POV

Barbara asked to see me alone, and Joanne said yes before I could say no.

Camille's recording of Russell in the back seat was on Joanne's phone by then, copied three times.

"She wants to talk because she thinks she's winning," Joanne said. "Let her."

It was the Sunday night before the vote, and the sixtieth floor of the Tamblyn tower was dark except for the windows.

It was the same room.

The party had been here, ninety guests and an empty chair at the head table.

Now somebody had stacked the chairs against the wall.

Barbara stood at the glass with her pearls on.

Joanne set a small black recorder on the nearest table and pressed the button.

Barbara looked at it and almost smiled.

"Record it," she said. "Nobody on that board will believe a word of it."

Joanne went to stand by the elevator, out of earshot but not out of sight.

"Margaret."

"It's Maggie."

"You've done well for yourself," Barbara said. "Boats. A bearded man. A little newspaper article."

"You came to say that?"

"I came to tell you what happens tomorrow."

"You lose your chair," I said.

"I keep it. I have seven of eleven. And on the fourteenth my son will stand in front of that bell and thank a company that is his."

"It's mine too."

"It's a spreadsheet you wrote on a card table."

"A routing system on yellow legal paper," I said. "In green ink. You've seen it."

Something moved behind her eyes.

"I have," she said. "The week he launched, Russell brought it to my kitchen in a box. He was so proud."

"What did you do?"

"I told him to put it away."

"You told him to cut my name."

"I told him a company has one founder," Barbara said. "Investors want a face. A wife on the cover page invites a divorce lawyer. I was right, wasn't I?"

My hands had gone cold.

I put them in my pockets.

"And the clinic," I said.

"My son came to me the day he got the results. He cried like a boy. I told him to sign the form."

"No disclosure to spouse."

"A wife who knows leaves," Barbara said. "I kept my son's marriage together for five years. You should thank me."

"I apologized to him every month," I said. "I wept in your downstairs bathroom."

"And you stayed," she said. "That is my point."

She looked at the recorder.

"I'd like you to know I am not sorry," she said. "Not for a moment. If it happened again I would do it again."

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