Chapter 5 - THE ANNIVERSARY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LEVERAGE
Mason flew home alone.
Talia stayed one night at another hotel.
Zayn stayed on the island.
No one knew what to call any of those facts.
By the time Mason landed in New York, Amanda had already suspended Talia’s corporate access pending internal review.
He went straight to the office.
Derek had printed everything.
Emails.
Card statements.
Draft agreements.
The line-of-credit request.
A document titled “Post-Anniversary Capital Authorization.”
Mason stared.
“What is that?”
Amanda answered.
“A draft consent.”
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
It would have authorized $500,000 in “strategic destination-development expenditures” under Talia’s discretion.
His digital signature block was already inserted.
Not executed.
Prepared.
Mason felt cold.
“When was this created?”
Three weeks earlier.
Amanda clicked metadata.
Created by Talia.
Edited by an outside consultant.
Last opened the night before the trip.
Mason read the attached email.
Talia to consultant:
He'll be relaxed on the anniversary. I can get him to approve the package without making it a whole board thing.
Mason stopped reading.
There it was.
The anniversary was not just romance.
It was leverage.
A setting where he would be softer.
Drinking.
Happy.
Eager not to fight.
Talia had planned to get him to sign.
The affair with Zayn was one betrayal.
The manipulation of the anniversary was another.
Amanda watched him carefully.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
Mason looked at the ceiling.
He remembered the private dinner Talia had booked for the next night.
She told him she had “something exciting for them to talk about.”
Now he knew what.
A half-million-dollar authorization.
His phone buzzed.
Talia.
He answered.
“Mason.”
She sounded exhausted.
“We need to talk.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“Through Amanda.”
“I’m your wife.”
He almost laughed.
“That didn’t stop you from building a financing ambush around our anniversary.”
Silence.
Then Talia whispered:
“I was going to tell you everything.”
“When?”
“After the land option was secure.”
“So after you spent the money.”
“I was trying to fix something.”
“By creating a bigger thing to fix.”
She started crying.
Mason closed his eyes.
For ten years, he had been the person Talia called when something went wrong.
Her father’s funeral.
Connor’s arrests in college.
Diane’s hospital bills.
Job loss.
Panic attacks.
Everything.
Maybe that was the real problem.
She had come to believe Mason’s capacity was endless.
That if she broke something badly enough, he would eventually absorb it.
He whispered:
“I’m done being the person you steal from because you assume I’ll survive it.”
May you like
Talia went silent.
Mason ended the call.
