Page 20 of Matrimonial Merger

“Was a cheating asshole. He isn’t you, Cal. I trust you. You are one of the few men I have ever felt completely safe with. So, catch up. Kristy is in a relationship. If her partner isn’t worried, why would I be? And you can tell her. I trust her, Cal. I’d catch upwithyou, but I am about to be underwater and media scrutiny. You might need a break to complain after the press jump on you, too.”

We reached the parking garage where my security waited with the driver.

“Daph, I don’t care. They can come for me as much as they want. I am enraged for you and wish you would have let me?—”

“Cal, you couldn’t come,” Daphne insisted. “And I don’t want you there. I don’t want you to have to sit through that conversation in real time. It will be harder for me to say those things in front of you.”

I climbed into the car after her, confused about why she was reticent.

“I already know them, Daphne.”

“I know. But… it’s so much harder to know you are reliving it with me in real-time in front of the world. I don’t know why I want to protect you, just that I want to.”

I kissed her forehead, “I am sorry, my love. I am so sorry because I love you so much and want to stop it, but know I am there with you. You can always call me?—”

“I know. I know, Cal.”

She handed me the envelope with the ultrasound pictures. “For now, the best thing you can do is take this home. Put it on the fridge. And don’t argue with me.”

While I always hated to put anything on the fridge, I agreed. “Sure. It definitely has a place on our fridge.”

Daphne smiled, then looked down at her phone, immediately going back to gloomy.

“What?” I asked.

“The wedding planner,” Daphne sighed. “So many questions. I just can’t handle that right now.”

“Let me handle it,” I said.

“You can’t. It’s about my wedding dress,” Daphne said. “I need one. I don’t want to look at anything because all they’re able to pull is ridiculous pregnancy-friendly dresses and I don’t want that.”

I tucked a curly strand behind her ear. “Daph, we’ll figure it out. Just tell her you don’t have the bandwidth and to bother me while you’re away.”

“Cal, that’s?—”

I kissed her, stopping the downward spiral. “Shhh. I will handle it, baby. Let me just appreciate one last glance of you—a happy you. I don’t want to ruminate on things that bother you right now, Daphne. I don’t have any time left for that.”

She brushed my cheek. “I love you for that. I will have them bother you, then. I am officially stepping away.”

7.DEMONS

Daphne

I stepped into a courtroom,shaking like a leaf next to my sisters Delanie, Dora, my mother, and Chloe. Chloe insisted that if Cal wasn’t coming, she was. Somehow, in this process, she’d stepped into the role of another sister. And since my pregnancy got outed, she’d only felt stronger. I sensed that I was the sister she never had. Either way, having more women on my side comforted me. I had an army of smart women behind me.

Delanie held my hand and whispered, “It’s just a courtroom. You know what to do.”

I shook my head as we took our seats behind the prosecution. “I haven’t.”

“But you’re… a lawyer.”

“I didn’t practice criminal law.”

“Not even in an internship?”

I looked up and saw the man of the hour entering the room in a tailored suit next to his expensive defense attorney. His hair was freshly cut. It was like nothing happened to him. Somehow, even the threat of prison couldn’t bring him down. I shivered.

“The person I interned with is currently on trial. The man has never spent a day in criminal court until now, either,” I whispered back.

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