Page 36 of First Date: Divorce
“See, Eric thinks the divorce was all her idea, that she dumped him for a guy who’d already made it according to the things Hilary values.What he doesn’t realize — still — is he started pulling out of that relationship first.She was just clever and sneaky enough to make him think that was her idea — one thing shehadn’tmaneuvered him into.”
Pauline huffed out a breath.
That left the opening K.D.had waited for.
“Eric left corporate law to come here, but practices general law here?”Certainly not much call for corporate law in Bardville, Wyoming.
“What do you two talk about if you haven’t covered this?”
“We quiz each other on your questionnaire.”
Pauline clicked her tongue, but didn’t pursue that line of criticism.“I suppose you do need to know this, too, though Hilary’s damage is more important.Anyway, more twists than that in his career.
“He started in criminal law — prosecutor’s office.Great at it, too.But then he opened his own practice.That’s when he hired me.No experience, either.He said he went with his instincts.I say he hired me because he could see how much I needed the job.Money, sure, but also my husband had just died and I needed to get out of the house, see something more than memories that wouldn’t ever get added to.”
Pauline’s thoughts seemed to drift to those memories for a moment.Then she twitched her shoulders.
“But that’s neither here nor there.”
K.D.had untangled enough accounts of bar fights to look for inconsistencies.“If Eric didn’t hire you until after he left the prosecutor’s office, how do you know he was good at the job.”
Pauline scowled at her for a beat, thenhuh’dout a breath.“You think like him in some ways.”Hard to tell if that was a compliment or not.“I know he was great at it because I talked to people.And I can read.Saw his record.Looked up write-ups about his cases.”
“What did he tell you about why he quit?”
“Not much.But I don’t need to be told everything.Got to know folks at the courthouse — never hurts to be friendly with them — and read between the lines of what they said and what they didn’t say.Then, at a retirement party for one of those folks, got talking with a woman who worked for the prosecutor’s office.Eric was assigned a case the prosecutor wanted won real bad for political points.He could have won — easy — but Eric dug into it.He and an investigator found evidence against somebody else for that crime.And turned it over to the defense, the way they’re supposed to.
“Prosecutor went ballistic and said he still expected Eric to win the case, despite that.Eric said he wouldn’t try it, not with knowing the other guy most likely did it and being sure the first guy didn’t.Prosecutor said he’d fire him.Eric said no need, because he quit.Then the prosecutor tried to get him to unquit, said he’d assign the case to somebody else.That didn’t cut it with Eric.He stayed quit and opened his own little office — and I do mean little — and worked free on that case.That’s how he met Cully and Grif.They knew the first guy accused from the military.Though there’s something hush-hush about the whole deal not even I know about.”
Pauline seemed prouder of Eric’s involvement in something hush-hush than frustrated that she didn’t know about it.
“This was when he hired me.First day, the prosecutor came in — guy I’d seen on the TV news, read quotes from all over.”She sniffed.“Not nearly as impressive in person.Especially when he tried throwing his weight around about seeing Eric right that minute, after I said he was in a meeting.Messaged Eric who was in the outer office.After a while, Cully and Grif went out another door, and the prosecutor went in.
“After thatconversation, no way Eric was going back.”Her satisfaction faded.“Met Hilary that day, too.She’d come back from a solo vacation to Paris.In a high snit over him quitting the prosecutor’s office.Making noises about calling off the wedding.Saying how could he make a move like that without consulting her.He said he couldn’t tell anyone — including her — details, but he’d acted on principle so he was sure she supported him.Hah!
“And said he’d tried to reach her about setting up the new office, but hadn’t heard back.Then she starts in about how he knows how shattered she gets from jet lag and he couldn’t blame her for what she couldn’t help.Turned it all around, putting him in the wrong.Watched her use that tactic over and over as she maneuvered him into doing what she wanted.”
“But you described their meeting on the elevator,” K.D.said.“Now you’re saying you didn’t meet her until they were engaged?”
“You really do think like him.”Definitely not a compliment.“I told you, I became friends with folks at the courthouse.Heard all about it from more than a couple.See, Hilary never paid attention to people like that.Probably didn’t even know they were there, much less that they put two and two together.
“So, yeah, she had her hooks in him when he hired me.You think I would have let it happen otherwise?If I’d known her then, I’d have nudged that fight along even the first day.Getting the wedding called off would’ve saved him a lot of hell from that woman, but first day and all…
“She would have pushed him out of prosecuting eventually anyway.Government pay wouldn’t satisfy that one.Not his own small practice either.She wheedled and whined until he went into corporate law.I followed him over.Nice benefits,” she acknowledged.“Boring as hell.And Hilary still not satisfied.”
Because of the timeline they’d developed for their charade courtship and marriage, Eric had declared his marriage to Hilary did not exist in the fictional world.A fine reason to not talk about it.
Clearly Pauline didn’t share that view.Had it been an accident she and Pauline hadn’t been alone until now?Or deliberate on Eric’s part.
“Oh?”She didn’t need to say more to prime Pauline’s pump.
“She was after him all the time.More, more, more.He thought she’d settle down, want a family, like he did.”The older woman snorted.“Children?Not that one.She wanted one hundred percent of the spotlight, one hundred percent of the time.
“When she eased up on the constant whining and wheedling, he thought she’d grown up.I didn’t.One of the few times in my life I wish I wasn’t right all the time.”She looked away from K.D.“If he weren’t such a good man, it wouldn’t have caught him the way it did.It’s not like he doesn’t know the world — not after a few years prosecuting around Chicago.But his family’s real good people, and he thought inside a marriage trust and honor and faith could be relied on.That’s why this place breaking up marriages gets to him and—”
The front door opened.K.D.twisted in her chair to see Eric, his skin sheened with sweat and his chest rising and falling rapidly, stop in the entryway, hands on hips, head dropped down.
“You sprinted up the stairs again, didn’t you,” Pauline accused.
