He Watched the Stars With Her, So I Signed the Divorce Chapter 06

He Watched the Stars With Her, So I Signed the Divorce Chapter 06

Ryan was suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

For the first time, instead of rushing back to the ship, he was forced to remain ashore.

At first, he kept texting me.

Ryan: [Emma, I went home to check on things. The living room light was out, so I fixed it.]

Ryan: [The yogurt you like had expired. I threw it away.]

Ryan: [I deleted every way I had of contacting Claire today.]

I did not respond. I simply forwarded the messages to Daniel.

Daniel: [Keep them. If he continues contacting you, the messages can be used to document a pattern of harassment.]

On the third day, the institute ordered Ryan to surrender all work-issued devices and suspended his

access to its internal systems.

I recognized three clips in the trailer for Claire’s documentary.

One showed coordinates for a deep-sea sampling site. Another showed onboard equipment being

tested. The third showed unreleased records of sea conditions.

None of that material belonged in a commercial documentary.

After I filed the report, the investigators quickly traced the downloads.

The logs showed that Ryan’s internal credentials had been used.

Ryan looked terrible when he came to the institute for questioning.

I ran into him in the hallway.

He stepped in front of me and lowered his voice.

“Emma, I only gave Claire a temporary access code once. She said she wanted to look up public

information. I never thought she would save any of it.”

“You knew temporary access codes couldn’t be shared with anyone outside the project.”

“I know.” He closed his eyes briefly. “At the time, I trusted her not to misuse it.”

Claire emerged from the interview room with red-rimmed eyes.

“Ryan, I was only trying to present your work in the best possible light. I wanted more people to understand how demanding ocean research can be. I never meant to hurt you.”

Ryan turned toward her.

“Where did the route coordinates and internal footage come from?”

Claire bit her lip.

“You gave me access.”

Her voice rose before she quickly brought it back under control.

“You can’t throw me under the bus now just because you’re in trouble. You never said no when I asked you for material.”

Ryan stared at her, momentarily speechless.

Claire looked at me as though I were her last chance.

“Are you satisfied now, Emma? You’ve ruined him. What good did that do you?”

“Did I tell you to access restricted files without authorization?”

The fragile look vanished from her face.

“Those files were just sitting there. I turned them into something worth sharing with the public. You’re the one who blew this completely out of proportion.”

Ryan’s expression hardened.

“Claire.”

She let out a short laugh.

“Oh, so now it’s ‘Claire’? What happened to that pet name you used to call me?”

An investigator stepped into the hallway and asked her to continue cooperating.

Before the investigator escorted her away, Claire looked back at Ryan.

“If you try to pin all of this on me, I’ll turn over every recording I have.”

“I saved everything you said about your wife not understanding you and how talking to me was the

only time you could relax.”

“I’ll make sure everyone despises you!”

Only the low rush of the air-conditioning remained in the hallway.

Ryan braced one hand against the wall as if all the strength had gone out of him.

When he looked at me, he seemed suddenly lost.

That evening, he waited for me outside my parents’ place.

My father spotted him while taking out the trash and tossed a small bag back into Ryan’s arms.

The seashell bracelet was inside.

“Emma asked me to return it. She doesn’t want it.

Ryan clutched the bag, his voice hoarse.

“Dad, I need to see her.”

My father rarely lost his temper, but this time he could not hold it back.

“Don’t call me Dad. Emma spent two years waiting for you. She wasn’t waiting for you to come

home and treat her like your backup plan.”

The hallway light went out, then came back on.

Ryan remained where he was and made no attempt to go upstairs.

His phone chimed.

Claire had sent him a voice message.

Claire: [If you abandon me now, I’ll take you down with me.]