Chapter 8 - I ENDED THE RELATIONSHIP BEFORE I KNEW WHETHER SHE WAS GUILTY OF FRAUDVanessa asked:
“Are you breaking up with me because of the wire?”
“No.”
She looked surprised.
I said:
“I don’t know yet what you knew about the fraud.”
“Then why?”
I thought about Mom kneeling.
Rosa’s folder.
The groundskeeper.
The housekeeper.
The bracelet accusation.
“The way you treat people.”
Her face broke.
“That one incident—”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“That’s the problem. It wasn’t one incident.”
Silence.
“You believed a woman was staff, so you thought humiliation was available to you.”
She started crying.
“I was showing off.”
“That makes it worse.”
She looked down.
Then:
“I love you.”
“I believe you.”
She looked hopeful for one second.
I continued:
“That doesn’t make us compatible.”
Love is not a governance structure.
Not a character reference.
Not immunity.
May you like
The relationship ended.
Whatever criminal investigation found later would be separate.
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