Chapter 11
Sylvia’s amended disclosure cost her exactly what Caroline predicted.
The board placed her leave of absence into effect indefinitely.
Outside counsel expanded the review to include her own conduct.
She agreed.
Still, Trent’s attorneys used the admission aggressively.
Their position became simple:
Sylvia created the arrangement.
Trent merely managed it.
The abuse allegations were supposedly retaliation after the marriage failed.
Truth alone had not solved anything.
It had made the fight more accurate.
Alessio faced damage of his own.
The private club’s board asked him to step away from day-to-day disciplinary decisions while the assault complaints remained open.
Several longtime associates treated the decision as humiliation.
Alessio accepted it.
That shocked them more than resistance would have.
At the hotel, Sylvia began physical therapy for her arm.
She also began meeting with a domestic-violence counselor recommended by her attorney.
She hated the phrase at first.
“It sounds like someone else’s life.”
The counselor asked, “Did locking yourself in a bathroom feel like your life?”
Sylvia did not argue after that.
One evening Alessio drove her home from therapy.
They sat outside her temporary apartment.
“I keep thinking about the first time he grabbed my wrist,” Sylvia said.
“What happened?”
“I laughed.”
Alessio looked at her.
“I told him he was being dramatic. He apologized. Then I apologized for making him jealous.”
She stared through the windshield.
“I thought smart women recognized this stuff immediately.”
“Smart people recognize things late all the time.”
She smiled faintly.
“You learn that in anger management?”
Alessio looked at her.
She had meant it as a joke.
He answered seriously.
“I started going.”
Sylvia turned.
“No court order?”
“No.”
That mattered to her.
Before she went inside, she said, “I’m still mad at you.”
“I know.”
“For not seeing it.”
“I know.”
“And for making it hard to tell you.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
She opened the door.
Then paused.
“But I’m not scared of telling you anymore.”
May you like
It was not forgiveness.
For Alessio, it was better than pretending.
