Chapter 10: The Reckoning
Vanja stood in the too-bright hall of the penthouse, Michael’s silk dressing gown clutched to her throat, the team executive’s sterile words hanging in the air like ugly confetti. She nodded dumbly and shut the door on them, waiting for Michael to pull on sweatpants and a hoodie.
“Go shower,” he said, his voice still morning-rough. He kissed her temple, a fleeting brush of anxious warmth. “Eat. I’ll deal with this.”
A pit formed in her stomach. “What does a ‘development’ mean?”
He tied his shoes, his movements deliberate. “It means I’m a thirty-million-euro asset who lost his fucking mind and married a PhD student in a bomb shelter, and the club is pissing itself about the optics. The other two were just the first rattle. This is the axe at the tree.”
“You’re a lawyer?”
He looked up, his expression flat. “No, I’m just very good at ending arguments.” He left, the door closing with a soft, decisive click.
The shower didn’t cleanse the apprehension. She dressed in jeans and a simple black sweater, the unfamiliar weight of the platinum ring turning on her finger. She ordered food she didn’t touch. The silence of the penthouse morphed from luxurious to cloying. She could feel the club’s machineries grinding around her, the ancient systems of money and power trying to classify her as a problem. An unpredictable variable in the life of a project.
An hour later, Pavlo called. His voice was scratchy, strained. “Where is he?”
“At Säbener with the suits. They came for him.”
A low whistle on the line. “They came for me first. An hour ago.In-person. Delivered a formal written warning. Unbecoming conduct. The fine is a slap, but the warning… goes on your permanent record. It’s the scarlet letter. A mark for scouts, for negotiations.”
“Aleks, I—”
“No,” he cut her off, his tone softening. “Don’t. You were right. Someone had to lock the gate. I used a louder key. What about him?”
“He’s still there.”
He was silent for a long moment. “They’ll come for you too. Not them. But they’ll be curious. Don’t go into the facility unless you’re with him. Stay in the wild.”
Stay in the wild. Good advice for a research anthropologist. Lousy advice for a wife trying to understand her territory.
The day deepened, bruised light slanting through the windows. Michael returned just after four. He looked calm.Too calm. He walked to the kitchen island, poured himself a measure of bourbon from a bottle he rarely touched, and knocked it back. His Adam's apple bobbed once.
“Well?” Vanja asked, curling her legs beneath her on the sofa. The distance across the room felt oceanic.
“They wanted to understand your intent,” he said, his voice measured. “First Joshua, now this secret marriage. After only a few months. My image is shifting, becoming less predictable. Do I understand you represent a romantic fixation, not a lifestyle change? Would I be amenable to a quiet… solution, to err on the side of my professional focus?”
Her blood ran cold. “A solution.”
“In private terms, a well-compensated divorce. Keep the home, of course. An investment property somewhere you choose. Substantial compensation for your… inconvenience and discretion.” He placed the empty glass down with great care. “In public terms, Vanja, the situation becomes easily manageable. I answer questions, I say I fell quickly but it didn’t work out. It will be championed as a maturity story.”
She didn’t speak.
He finally looked at her. His face was a smooth, terrifyingly empty canvas. “My agent was there. He outlined new clauses for my endorsement contracts. A morality clause, heavily leveraged on marital status for my lifestyle brands. My signature is worth more unmarried.”
“And what did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything. I didn’t trust my mouth.” He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. The city sprawled below, green swathes and distant, glittering blue of the stadium. His physical geometry, his form, were inseparable from that landscape. “I just thought about his swollen tears, glowing on his cheek. The chain-jerking pulse in her own scar”
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She stood. The world had honed itself to a razor's edge. Her voice, when it came, was deceptively quiet.
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