The Prenup Evaluation That Ended Five Years Chapter 09

Sycamore trees lined the path to the private rehabilitation center’s iron gate.

Gavin showed up carrying a fruit basket wrapped in plastic.

A few bruised apples and browning bananas inside.

Bought with his last five dollars.

He walked up to the security booth.

“I’m here to see Martin Vale.”

“I’m his son-in-law.”

The guard looked him over and pressed the intercom.

A few minutes later.

My father was on the lawn in a wheelchair.

Clean patient clothes. A cashmere blanket tucked over his legs.

My mother wheeled him to a stop behind the iron fence.

Gavin dropped to his knees on the other side.

“Dad.”

“Mom.”

“I came to see you.”

“I know I was terrible. Sloane had me fooled the whole time.”

“Please, just talk to Tessa for me. Ask her to see me. That’s all I’m asking.”

My father looked at him.

He reached into the side pocket of his wheelchair and pulled out a spare insulin pen.

The same kind Gavin had once held hostage.

My father hurled the pen through the bars. It cracked against Gavin’s forehead and bounced into the grass.

“Shut your mouth.”

“Don’t you dare call me Dad.”

“My daughter is doing just fine without you.”

“Stay away from my family.”

My mother turned the wheelchair around.

“Come on, honey. Time for your medicine.”

Gavin grabbed the iron bars.

“Don’t walk away!”

“She loved me. You can’t just turn that off! You can’t just stop!”

He pulled a rusty box cutter from his pocket.

He dragged it across his forearm.

Blood ran down his wrist and dripped into the soil beneath the sycamores.

“Let me see her!”

“I swear to God, I’ll bleed out right here if you don’t!”

A black SUV pulled up at the curb.

Elliot stepped out.

Four bodyguards followed.

Elliot walked up to Gavin.

He looked down at the blood on the ground.

“What exactly do you think this accomplishes?”

“All you’re doing is disgusting her.”

“She doesn’t even hate you anymore. You’re not worth the effort.”

Elliot lifted a hand.

Two bodyguards stepped forward.

They grabbed Gavin by the arms and hauled him away from the gate.

His feet dragged behind him, shoes scraping the asphalt.

“Have the state board revoke his architectural and contractor licenses. Make sure he never manages a project in this city again. Then put him on a non-union day-labor crew hauling bricks at the south-side site.”

Elliot said it to his assistant without looking away from Gavin.

“Let him watch Tessa climb to a place he’ll never reach.”

The bodyguards dropped him at the curb.

A street sweeper rumbled past, and the spray soaked his mud-caked pants.

Across the street, the giant LED screen on a shopping mall flickered to life.

A three-minute video started playing.

Behind-the-scenes footage from wedding photos of Elliot and me on the Amalfi Coast.

I was standing on a black sand beach in a white wedding dress.

Elliot reached over and tucked the windblown veil away from my face.

Sunlight broke through the clouds and poured over me.

Gavin lay in the gutter.

He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the screen.

Ragged sobs tore out of him.

Traffic streamed past. No one stopped. No one looked.