Chapter 7 - ETHAN OFFERED ME A DEALThrough attorneys, Ethan offered a divorce settlement.
Generous.
Very generous.
House.
Investments.
Cash.
No contest over retirement assets.
One condition.
I would make a statement saying I did not believe he intentionally took credit for Northstar.
I laughed when my lawyer read it.
“He’s buying my memory.”
“Essentially.”
“No.”
My lawyer nodded.
“I assumed.”
Ethan requested a private conversation.
I agreed only with counsel nearby.
He looked tired.
Not defeated.
Still bargaining.
“Take the settlement.”
“No.”
“You deserve it.”
“That’s not why you offered it.”
His jaw tightened.
“Charlotte, my career is over.”
“That is not my doing.”
“You could help.”
“How?”
“Say the records were confusing.”
“They weren’t.”
“Say we both contributed.”
“We did, in different places.”
“Then say that.”
“I already have.”
He leaned forward.
“You know what this investigation will do to me.”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t care?”
I thought carefully.
“I care.”
That surprised him.
“Then—”
“Caring is not the same as lying for you.”
He closed his eyes.
“I was always in your shadow.”
There it was.
Finally.
“You had your own career.”
“It didn’t feel like it.”
“Why?”
“Because when people knew what you did, I became Charlotte Warren’s husband.”
I stared.
“That happened maybe five times.”
“It was enough.”
“So you erased me?”
“I didn’t think of it that way.”
“How did you think of it?”
He looked ashamed.
“Balancing things.”
That word almost made me laugh.
Balance.
As if marriage were a scale where one person’s accomplishments needed removing to keep the other from feeling light.
I stood.
“You never needed me smaller.”
Ethan looked up.
“I needed to become secure enough to stand beside you.”
He cried then.
Quietly.
May you like
I believed those tears.
They did not change my decision.
