“Fine.”
She picked up one of the bright suitcases near the wall.
Marcus noticed.
“Why are those packed?”
Vanessa froze.
Everyone looked.
Three suitcases.
Pink.
Purple.
Turquoise.
Standing neatly beside the bench.
Marcus had assumed they were stored there.
Now he saw the luggage tags.
New.
Attached.
Nora noticed too.
“You were leaving?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Where were you going?”
“New York.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“With three suitcases?”
“I have a week of meetings.”
“You told me you were leaving Thursday.”
Vanessa’s silence lengthened.
Nora looked at Marcus.
The second phone.
The envelope.
Packed suitcases.
The cut dress.
Suddenly the room contained more than one story.
Marcus took out his own phone.
“Jonathan.”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward him.
“No.”
He looked at her.
Jonathan Ellis was Marcus’s oldest friend, general counsel for Brooks Development, and the person Vanessa disliked most in Marcus’s professional life.
“Why not?”
“This has nothing to do with your company.”
Marcus called anyway.
Jonathan answered.
“Hey.”
“I need you at the house.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Marcus looked at Vanessa.
“I don’t know yet.”
Jonathan arrived forty minutes later.
By then Vanessa had moved into the downstairs sitting room.
She had called her attorney.
Marcus did not stop her.
Maya sat at the kitchen island wrapped in Lillian’s coat despite the house being warm.
The pink gown remained upstairs.
No one wanted to move it.
Nora had placed the envelope and second phone inside a clear document pouch without opening either.
Jonathan entered.
He was forty-three, slender, gray beginning at his temples, still carrying his office briefcase.
He saw Maya.
“Hey.”
She attempted a smile.
“What happened?”
Marcus told him.
Not elegantly.
Not calmly.
Just facts.
Dress.
Scissors.
Bag.
Phone.
Envelope.
Suitcases.
Jonathan listened.
Then asked Maya only one question.
“Are you okay?”
She shrugged.
“That’s a fair answer.”
He looked at Marcus.
“Where’s Vanessa?”
“Downstairs.”
“Does she have counsel?”
“Yes.”
“Then you need independent family counsel before you do anything involving the marriage.”
“I know.”
“And I am not opening that phone.”
“I know.”
“Or the envelope.”
“Why?”
“Because ownership and privacy issues are now messy.”
Marcus looked irritated.
Jonathan ignored it.
“That does not mean we throw evidence around because everyone is angry.”
“Evidence of what?”
“Exactly.”
Jonathan sat.
“Don’t invent the crime before finding the facts.”
Maya looked at him.
“You sound like Dad.”
Jonathan smiled faintly.
“Your dad sounds like me. He steals professionally.”
Marcus would normally have argued.
He could not.
Lillian asked, “Can the dress be repaired?”
Everyone looked at Maya.
The girl stared at the countertop.