My reaction was clearly all over my face.
“What if I could ask Eric to give you—” Nina began gingerly.
“Don’t even think about it,” I cut her off sharply. “If you even think the word allowance or trust or imagine for a second that we are getting married without an ironclad prenup, you don’t know me for shit, Nina. I am not marrying you for your money, and I won’t have a single person even thinking it. No arguments.”
“But if it’s because I cost you your job—”
“For the last time, you didn’t cost me my job,” I barked. “I cost me my job, Nina. And I’m getting a little tired of saying over and over that I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I made my choice. I’ll take the slap on the wrist, maybe get fired, and move on. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it still meant falling in love with you, so just drop it, all right?”
She had the decency to look contrite—so much that I felt a little sorry myself for snapping at her.
“Look,” I said, turning to cup her face. “It’s going to be all right. It’s a job, not my life. Besides, now we don’t have to hide, right? That’s done with now. It’s over.”
But for some reason, that gleam didn’t return to her eyes.
“Nina. Isn’t it?”
“Matthew,” she said quietly. “You don’t know him like I do. He’s vindictive. More than you can possibly imagine.”
I almost asked her why she thought that, but decided against it. I wanted to know where she was going with this.
“Think about what he’s already done,” she said. “Matthew, he forced his cousin to pretend to be me for ten years to get what he wants, and it can’t have only been because using my name got him what he wanted for his business. He wanted to ruin me in the end, at whatever cost to himself. Calvin is…”
“An uncouth, egomaniacal, sociopathic motherfucker,” I finished heavily as I reached the same conclusion. “Who is unfortunately not as stupid as I thought. And the second he knows that we’re together, much less engaged, he’s going to fuck things up for me permanently. That’s what you’re saying, right?”
“I can’t imagine he won’t try,” Nina said.
I chewed on my lip. As much as I wanted to believe that Calvin’s potential threats had no teeth, I knew the truth. It was one thing to admit I had fallen for a defendant’s wife and allow myself to be put on administrative leave. It was another to be splashed across the New York tabloids and have every detail of our relationship picked apart by the press, even if I managed not to lose my license. Calvin and Nina were national news, and I couldn’t afford to be blacklisted in every state and county.
The truth was, if I didn’t have the ability to do my job in any capacity, I didn’t really have much of anything beyond the woman next to me. And as much as I wanted to say that being her husband would be enough…she and I both knew the truth. It wouldn’t be. That’s not who I was.
“Fine,” I agreed irritably. “You’re right. But I have to see you. Nina, we have to see each other still.”
“Of course,” she said, capturing my face between her hands and kissing me.
I slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her close, kissing her for a good long time, more than was really necessary just now. But Nina gave as good as she got. We were both feeling that desperation.
But when we broke apart, she continued speaking.
“Matthew, tell me you understand. Until I am fully divorced and Calvin’s trial is finished…no one in New York can know about us. Not even Jane and Eric. You know Jane. She can’t keep a secret to save her life.”
Slowly, I nodded, hating myself more every second. “No one can know.”
Nina pressed her forehead to mine. “We have to be quiet. We have to be careful.”
I inhaled her scent of roses, feeling that heady high of love, not fear. That’s what would keep me going for the next several months. The promise of this scent. The knowledge of this night.
“We keep it quiet,” I repeated, every word tasting like lead. “Until the trials are over. No one will know a thing.”
Interlude II
New York Sun
April 14, 2019
Gardner trial verdict pending
After months of delays, the explosive three-week trial of New York financier Calvin Gardner finished this week at Kings County Criminal Court, with all parties eagerly awaiting a verdict.
In what’s been called an extension of the largest human trafficking case in New York State history, Gardner, 49, was charged with sex trafficking, fraud, and identity theft in relation to a Brooklyn-based real estate scam tied to munitions magnate Jonathan Carson, who was killed in De Vries Shipping CEO Eric de Vries’s apartment in May of last year.
“The Brooklyn DA lost its primary target when John Carson died last year, and now he’s looking to put a feather in his cap at any cost,” said Craig Moroney in a statement outside the Kings County courthouse. “He tossed around accusations like spaghetti at a wall. Except not a single one stuck.”
Prosecutor Greg Cardozo had a different perspective. “It’s simple,” Cardozo told reporters. “Calvin Gardner and others like him believe they are above the law. They believe they can buy their way out of trouble when they’re caught. But the Brooklyn district attorney’s office is here for one reason only: to get criminals like him off the street.”
Cardozo argued in court that similar investigations were ongoing across the region. None of the prosecutors’ offices in New Jersey or Connecticut could confirm.
The trial
