Chapter 5 - If He Were Still Poor
By Monday morning, the wedding video was everywhere.
Not the whole wedding.
Twenty-three seconds.
That was enough.
Eleanor Whitmore’s voice.
Calvin standing beside the table.
The words brown suit.
Trash.
Marcus rising.
Vanessa laughing.
Then the ring.
The clip had been recorded vertically by a guest three tables away. It shook at the worst moments and caught someone whispering, “Oh my God,” near the end.
Marcus refused to watch it.
Everyone else did.
His phone contained 143 unread messages by nine in the morning.
Clients.
College friends.
People he had not spoken to in ten years.
Three journalists.
Two strangers.
One former girlfriend.
He turned the phone face down.
Calvin sat across from him in a diner on the South Side.
Not a private club.
Not Horizon headquarters.
A diner.
Marcus looked around.
“You own this place too?”
Calvin sighed.
“No.”
“Building?”
“No.”
“Parking lot?”
“No.”
“The company that makes the coffee?”
“Marcus.”
He almost smiled.
Almost.
They had barely spoken since Saturday.
Calvin respected the distance.
That irritated Marcus too.
A waitress refilled their mugs.
“You gentlemen want anything else?”
Calvin shook his head.
“No, ma’am. Thank you.”
She walked away.
Marcus watched him.
“You could buy this entire block.”
“Probably.”
“And you’re eating six-dollar eggs.”
“They’re good eggs.”
Marcus rubbed his face.
“You’re impossible.”
“I’ve been told.”
Marcus’s phone buzzed again.
Vanessa.
For the eleventh time.
He didn’t answer.
Calvin glanced at the screen.
“You should talk to her eventually.”
“Why?”
“Because unfinished conversations stay louder than finished ones.”
Marcus gave him a look.
“You hiding six billion dollars from me and giving relationship advice is impressive.”
“Six-point-eight.”
Marcus stared.
Calvin sipped coffee.
“That was a joke.”
“It was terrible.”
“I’m rusty.”
Marcus finally laughed.
The sound surprised both of them.
Then his phone buzzed again.
Vanessa.
Marcus stood.
“I’m going outside.”
Rain had stopped, but Chicago remained gray.
He answered.
“Hello.”
Vanessa exhaled.
“Thank God.”
“What do you want?”
“I need to see you.”
“No.”
“Marcus, please.”
“No.”
“There are things you don’t know.”
He looked through the diner window at Calvin.
“That seems to be happening a lot lately.”
“I deserve that.”
“Yes.”
“Please. Thirty minutes.”
Marcus almost hung up.
Then he remembered Calvin’s words.
Unfinished conversations.
“Where?”
They met at a small park near the river.
Vanessa arrived wearing jeans, a wool coat and dark glasses.
No makeup he could see.
No wedding dress.
No entourage.
For the first time since he knew her, she looked ordinary.
Marcus realized he had missed ordinary.
She stopped several feet away.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
They sat on opposite ends of a bench.
Vanessa took off her glasses.
Her eyes were swollen.
“I’m sorry.”
Marcus looked ahead.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She breathed carefully.
“I keep replaying it.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“I deserve to.”
“Punishing yourself doesn’t help me.”
“I’m not trying to help you.”
He looked at her.
She swallowed.
“I’m trying to understand how I became that person.”
Marcus waited.
Vanessa continued.
“My mother started making comments before the wedding.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know all of them.”
He said nothing.
“She thought your dad would embarrass us.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa rushed on.
“I told her she was being ridiculous.”
“When?”
“Thursday.”
“Then Saturday you laughed.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vanessa looked toward the river.
“Because I spent my whole life learning that when my mother makes someone the target, you laugh or you become the next one.”
Marcus stared at her.
“That’s your explanation?”
“No.”
“Sounds like one.”
“It’s the truth. It isn’t an excuse.”
He looked away.
For several minutes they listened to traffic.
Then Vanessa said, “I loved you.”
“Past tense?”
She winced.
“I love you.”
Marcus’s face remained still.
“I know that means nothing right now.”
“It means something.”
Hope appeared in her expression.
Then he finished.
“It just doesn’t mean enough.”
Vanessa lowered her head.
“I didn’t know about your father.”
Marcus looked at her sharply.
“Why does that matter?”
“It doesn’t.”
“You brought it up.”
“Because everything has gotten insane.”
“Your father found out?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He searched Calvin after someone recognized him.”
Marcus watched her.
Vanessa hesitated.
“My parents are scared.”
“Of what?”
She looked embarrassed.
“My dad’s company has financing through one of your father’s companies.”
Marcus laughed softly.
There it was.
Vanessa heard the sound.
“This isn’t why I called.”
“Then tell your father to relax. My dad isn’t going to destroy him because his wife has no manners.”
“You talked about it?”
“No.”
Vanessa blinked.
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Calvin isn’t your parents.”
She flinched.
Marcus stood.
Vanessa rose too.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“I meant what I said. I’m sorry.”
He looked at her.
“If my father were still the man you thought he was, would you be standing here?”
Vanessa froze.
Marcus waited.
A cyclist passed behind them.
The river moved darkly beneath the bridges.
“Answer me.”
“I…”
Her mouth closed.
Marcus nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
“No.”
She caught his arm.
“No, Marcus. That’s not fair.”
“Then answer.”
“I would have apologized.”
“When?”
She looked at him.
He pulled his arm away.
“When the video went viral?”
Silence.
“When your friends started criticizing you?”
Silence.
“When your father’s business got nervous?”
Her eyes filled.
“Stop.”
“When you discovered my dad had six billion dollars?”
“Stop!”
Marcus’s voice remained quiet.
“Which one?”
Vanessa covered her face.
He almost reached for her.
Habit.
Love.
Memory.
He stopped himself.
Finally she whispered, “I don’t know.”
Marcus nodded.
“That’s the first honest thing you’ve said.”
She lowered her hands.
“I hate who I was in that room.”
“So change.”
“Without you?”
“That part isn’t up to me.”
Vanessa cried silently.
Marcus turned to leave.
Then she said, “There’s something else.”
He stopped.
His back remained toward her.
“What?”
Vanessa didn’t speak.
Marcus turned.
She looked frightened now.
Not sad.
Frightened.
“My mother didn’t decide to say those things during the speech.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa wrapped her coat tighter around herself.
“She planned it.”
The air suddenly felt colder.
“How long?”
“A few days.”
Marcus stared.
“Did you know?”
Vanessa’s eyes moved away.
That was answer enough.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Vanessa.”
“I didn’t know exactly what she would say.”
“Did you know she planned to humiliate him?”
“She said she wanted to make a point.”
“What point?”
Vanessa wiped her face.
“That after we got married, there needed to be boundaries.”
Marcus felt something heavy settle in his chest.
“What boundaries?”
Vanessa didn’t answer.
“Say it.”
“She didn’t want your father at certain events.”
Marcus stared.
“Which events?”
“Business dinners. Charity things. Vacations with my parents.”
He laughed once in disbelief.
Vanessa continued quickly.
“I told her you’d never agree.”
“What did you tell her you would do?”
Nothing.
“Vanessa.”
She looked at him.
“I told her…”
Her voice broke.
“I told her after we were married, I could probably convince you.”
Marcus stepped back as though she had struck him.
Vanessa reached toward him.
He raised one hand.
“No.”
“I was stupid.”
“No.”
“Marcus—”
“You weren’t surprised Saturday.”
“I was.”
“You knew.”
“I didn’t know she’d call him trash.”
“But you knew he was the target.”
Vanessa started crying harder.
Marcus remembered every second of that laugh.
Now it sounded different.
Not nervous.
Not accidental.
Complicit.
He turned away.
“Marcus.”
He kept walking.
Behind him, Vanessa called his name.
May you like
He didn’t stop.
This time, there was nothing unfinished about the conversation.
