Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Wife's Reckoning : Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 86

Chapter 81 — What the Filing Was ForPOV: Marcus HaleMy attorney called while I was parking, and I stayed in the car with the engine off to take it."The evaluator has been assigned," he said. "She'll interview you, Elena, and Liam separately. There's a home visit for each household, so she'll want to meet your wife, see the house, ask a few questions about daily life.""Sophia doesn't need to be part of this.""She's an adult living in the home where a minor may spend time. She's part of it whether either of you likes it or not." He paused. "Is that going to be a problem?""No," I said, too fast, and heard it the way he must have.I sat there after he hung up, watching the porch light come on through the windshield. For three weeks I had treated the petition as a document, something that lived in my attorney's office and my email. A home visit made it a stranger in my kitchen with a notepad, asking my wife what kind of man I was.Sophia was at the counter when I came in, slicing veg

Chapter 83 — The Price of Standing Near HimPOV: Marcus HaleArthur did not tell me to come to the house. He said the evening would suit him and hung up, and I drove out there the next day with the folder on the passenger seat, rehearsing the order of what I'd say. Facts first. Then the request. Then, if I had to, the reminder of everything I'd carried for him.His study was exactly as it always it even after two years, the dark desk, the leather chair, the single lamp. He gestured at the chair across from him, and I sat in it like a man arriving for a review."Sophia has been to see a lawyer," he said."She spoke to Elena's attorney. She hasn't given anything yet.""She will next week. I assume you know that as well." He folded his hands. "I'd have preferred to hear it from you, Marcus, rather than from a man I pay to listen.""I'm telling you now.""You're telling me because you want something."I set the folder on the desk. "Elena is going to use the old records. The development, t

Chapter 85 — Under OathPOV: Sophia LangDad called at seven forty while I was buttoning my daughter's cardigan. I watched his name light up the phone on the dresser until it stopped. Then it rang again, and I let it ring out a second time.Marcus stood in the bedroom doorway, already dressed, holding a coffee he hadn't touched."He's stopped calling me," he said. "Since Friday it's only been you.""Because he knows which one of us can't be talked out of it.""Sophia.""You haven't asked me not to go. I noticed that.""I'm not going to ask." He looked at the cardigan, at our daughter's hands patting my face. "I'd like to say I'm being noble. I think I just know the answer.""Then say it for what it is," I said. "You've run out of things to try."He didn't argue. I took our daughter to the neighbor's and drove to Renata Alvarez's office alone.The room was smaller than I had pictured, a table, four chairs, a notary with her stamp already out, a recorder set exactly in the middle. Renat