That distinction landed.
Madison gathered her copies.
Nathaniel stared at her wedding ring.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“For me?”
“For us.”
Madison almost smiled.
“There hasn’t been an us for months, Nathaniel.
I’m simply the last person you informed.”
She walked out before he could answer.
By noon, Veronica had arrived at Pierce Global.
Madison learned this from security, who called because Veronica was demanding access to the executive elevators.
Nathaniel was already upstairs.
Madison could have stayed away.
Instead, she returned.
When the elevator opened on forty-six, voices were carrying from Nathaniel’s office.
“You told me you trusted me,” Veronica said.
“I asked you a question.”
“And I answered it.”
“You screamed at me.”
“Because you’re accusing me of something disgusting.”
Madison entered without knocking.
Veronica turned.
The confidence from Fifth Avenue was gone.
Her cream cashmere coat had been replaced by black wool, but one hand still rested over her stomach as though pregnancy itself were a shield.
Nathaniel stood behind his desk with the lab report in front of him.
Veronica looked from him to Madison.
“This is between Nathaniel and me.”
Madison closed the door.
“No.
That ended when you sent medical evidence to my office.”
“It was an ultrasound.”
“So you admit sending it.”
Veronica froze.
Nathaniel looked at her.
“You told me you had nothing to do with that.”
Veronica’s eyes flashed.
“I was trying to force honesty.”
“With my wife?”
“With yourself.”
The words came too quickly.
Madison saw Nathaniel hear them.
Veronica stepped toward him.
“You were never going to leave her unless something made you.
You kept saying after the merger, after the quarter, after the board meeting.
There was always another reason.”
Nathaniel’s voice went cold.
“So you sent Madison the ultrasound.”
“Yes.”
“And the recording?”
Veronica hesitated.
Madison answered for her.
“She sent that too.”
Nathaniel looked sick now.
Not because he had betrayed Madison.
