“Maybe,” he said. “But it’s not just that. I’ve spent my career fighting the rest of those assholes, and I can promise you, baby, they aren’t exactly as altruistic as you are.”
“So what will you do?” I asked. He must have had a plan.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. An attorney with my experience at Legal Aid earns about half what I earned before. There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell I can get a position at one of the other New York DA offices, considering how they all know each other, but even if I did, it wouldn’t be the same. Ramirez is one of the good ones—the others are beyond corrupt. It’s why I thought your family could trust him to begin with.”
I didn’t say anything more. Matthew’s despair was palpable, his longing thick. Part of me wanted to march all the way to Brooklyn and demand a meeting with this Ramirez to tell him exactly what he was losing out on. That he had terminated the most honorable man in the city. What a loss for the people of New York.
“Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to leave,” he said, now leaning back on the couch and staring vacantly up at the crown molding on the ceiling. “Get the hell out of New York and start fresh.”
“Would—would you?”
I hadn’t honestly imagined it before now, with the exception of a few moments when we were at my house in Newton. Matthew was so, well, New York. Much more than me, despite the fact that we were both born and raised here.
To my disappointment, he only shrugged.
“I don’t want to leave Frankie in the lurch, but I also know she doesn’t want a roommate with Sofia living there. Even if I sold the house, there isn’t enough equity in it to split with Frankie so she could afford something for the two of them.” He shook his head. “It’s just a pipe dream, really. I’m just angry today.”
“You know, this wouldn’t be a problem if you had let me—” I started gently, but Matthew cut me off quickly.
“Nina, we’ve been over this about a thousand times. You don’t even like accepting your cousin’s guest room despite the fact that you have as much of a right to the family fortune as he does. Why would you think I would want to accept any handouts at all from a family I’m not even a part of?”
After several weeks and several fights, Matthew had decided to refuse all my attempts to pay off his debts out of my trust—or allow Eric to do so on my behalf. Upon our arrival home, he had called every loan officer to request the money’s return to Eric’s accounts. I didn’t really understand it. Perhaps I didn’t have any money to call my own, but Matthew had to know that the value of his home really was a paltry sum compared to my family’s total holdings. It wasn’t much more of a gift than paying a parking ticket. Or a few nice dinners.
But Matthew wouldn’t be Matthew without his pride, infuriating though it was.
“Yet,” I corrected him softly. “Not a part of…yet.”
He looked at me then with such utter longing I thought my heart might break in half.
“Yet,” he murmured as he took my left hand and stroked the finger where his ring should really be.
“Do we really have to keep a secret anymore, doll?”
I glanced in the direction Eric and Jane had gone. Part of me desperately wanted to tell them. And I did think I could trust them. But at the same time, I didn’t want to implicate them in anything to do with the divorce. They were trying to make a new life for themselves. I understood why they would want to escape the drama.
“There is another meeting with the lawyers next week, after the gala,” I said. “I think if we hold off until the papers are signed, it would be better.”
“Better for you or for him?”
I pulled my hand away and stroked his face, delighting in the rough stubble under my fingertips. “For me and for you.” I considered the look on Calvin’s face after he had seen me at the courthouse. Should I tell Matthew what he had said?
His expression told me I should not. Better to keep my head down, get these papers signed as soon as possible. Then we really would be free. After just a bit longer.
“Come on, my love.” I stood up and tugged on his arm to follow. “Let’s get us both a glass of wine and pretend we’re just two people over for luncheon. I think a little food will do us both some good.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nina
We found Jane and Eric setting the table in their dining room for a lunch of roasted chicken and salad along with a bottle of Sancerre. Over the last several months, I’d only just gotten used to the fact that Jane and Eric preferred to take turns cooking rather than employ a chef. With only a housekeeper and their security, their staff was quite minimal compared to what I had grown up with. Not much of a cook myself, I had at least learned to do dishes particularly well.
“Eric always overcooks the chicken, so I’d recommend the dark meat,” Jane said as she set a serving dish of carved pieces on the large table that took up most of their dining room.
“I think you’ll find this is perfectly basted,” Eric countered as everyone took their seats. He poured out the wine as Matthew served me some salad, then took some for himself.
“You always say that too,” Jane said.
“Just try it, pretty girl.”
Jane blushed and looked down at her food without answering. Beside me, Matthew chuckled to himself. Though on the outside Jane and Eric appeared to bicker constantly, those who knew them well could see it for what it was: their remarkable chemistry that really never
