He clenched his jaw. “Pamela doesn’t mean anything.”
My husband accidentally transferred five thousand dollars to his mistress and
What a miserable phrase. They say it as if a mistress can just be erased with contempt after paying for her with the bread meant for your kids. “For not meaning anything, she sure came expensive.”
He stepped closer. “Lauren, I made a mistake. But you know I moved the clients. I closed the deals.”
Ellen let out a laugh from her machine. “You closed the door, sir. The deals were brought in by the missus.”
Daniel glared at her. “Stay out of this, old lady.”
Then Matthew came out of the office. My son had come to get his school supplies and heard everything. “Don’t talk to her like that.” Daniel froze. “Matthew, come here. I need to explain.” “I don’t want you to.”
Those five words broke him more than the lawsuit. My son didn’t yell. He didn’t cry. He just stood next to me. Sophia appeared behind him, her eyes damp but her back straight. “Neither do I.”
Daniel tried to pat their heads. They both pulled away. At that moment I understood that the harshest punishment wasn’t going to come from a judge. It was going to come from his children looking at him like a stranger.
The public humiliation arrived on Friday. I didn’t look for it. He earned it.
Pamela, furious because Daniel couldn’t pay for Miami, went to the warehouse. She walked in wearing dark sunglasses, extremely long nails, and a blue dress I recognized instantly. The five-thousand-dollar blue dress. She stood at the reception desk and yelled: “Lauren! Come out here, you pathetic joke!”
The seamstresses looked up. The delivery drivers did too. I walked out of the office with Mr. Thompson on the phone. “Here I am.”
Pamela took off her sunglasses. “Your husband owes me money. And if you think blocking his credit cards is going to keep a man, you are very mistaken.” I looked her up and down. She wasn’t prettier than me. She was just more rested. That is not the same thing.
“My husband does not owe you money. You need to explain why you have a corporate card in your name without a contract, without being registered as an employee, and without any verifiable services.” She went pale. “Daniel said he was a partner.” “Daniel also said the five thousand was my reward.”
