Chapter 9: The Side Hallway With White Walls Again
I followed Richard off the stage and past the service doors while the applause was still rolling behind us. He didn't look back. He walked fast, his shoulders squared the way they got when he wanted to be ahead of a conversation, down the venue's side hallway that could have been a copy of the one at home — same plain white walls, same soft even light, same sheer curtains over a high window at the far end. A pendant light hummed faintly overhead. The air was cooler here, away from the ballroom.
He stopped halfway down, near the coat check alcove where no guests were. He checked his watch.
"You're not going back out there to make a scene," he said quietly. He slipped the small brass key to the dressing suite into his inner jacket pocket and patted it. "Lily stays where she is until we're done. You smile for the photographer. That's the schedule."
I didn't answer right away. My hand was inside my small clutch. The red dress rustled when I breathed. The diamond pendant sat heavy against my skin, cold at first then warm. I could hear the band starting up again in the ballroom, muffled through the wall.
I had told Daniel to wait at the far end by the exit sign and not to come forward until I called him. Richard hadn't seen him.
I unclasped the clutch and thumbed my phone awake. The screen was dimmed. Daniel had trimmed the file that afternoon to just six seconds and sent it to me. No music, no ambience. Just our voices from our hallway at three o'clock.
I held the phone at waist height, angle tipped slightly toward Richard so he could hear, and pressed play.
My own voice came first, small and clipped from the recording: "Get out of my sight. Please leave me alone. Don't touch her again."
Then his, a second later, that same flat, incredulous tone he'd used when Daniel stepped in front of me and Lily: "You're protecting her?"
The hallway was so quiet I heard the phone's speaker hiss after the clip ended.
Richard stared at it. Color rose up his neck.
"Where did you get that," he said. It wasn't a question.
I didn't lift the phone higher. I kept my wrist steady. The diamonds caught the light when I shifted.
"Daniel's phone was on," I said. "It caught you."
He laughed once, short. "You think that proves anything? That's out of context. You sound hysterical."
"It proves your tone," I said.
His eyes flicked to the hallway behind me, then back to the phone. He stepped forward, hand out, palm open.
"Give it to me," he said. "Now. Before you do something stupid with it."
I took a half step back. My heel caught slightly on the carpet and I steadied myself against the white wall. The pendant swung once and settled. I didn't raise my voice. I didn't need to.
"If you touch me, I'll play it again louder," I said. "There's a staff member at the end of this hall. She'll hear it."
He hesitated, his hand still extended. His fingers flexed.
"Margaret," he said, lower. "Think about what you're doing. You want to stand in a hallway and blackmail your husband over a misheard sentence? At our own gala?"
I kept the phone where it was. My breathing was audible to me, slow and even. I could see the sweat at his temple despite the cool air.
"I'm not playing it for the guests," I said. "I want the key. You hand it to me, and I walk back to the dressing suite and get Lily. No scene."
He glanced again toward the ballroom doors where laughter spilled out every time someone pushed through. He lowered his hand an inch.
"You wouldn't," he said.
I didn't answer. I let the silence do it.
Footsteps sounded at the far end of the hall. Daniel came around the corner in his light gray suit, white shirt open at the collar, tattoos visible at his neck. He didn't hurry. He stopped about ten feet behind Richard, at the junction where the hallway met the service corridor, and just stood there, hands at his sides. He didn't speak. He looked at me once, then at Richard.
Richard turned his head, saw him, and his shoulders tightened. He understood the geometry then — me against the wall with the phone, Daniel blocking the way back to the party. No shouting, no touching, just the two of us and the white walls and the pendant light.
"This is how you want to do this?" Richard said to me, his voice thinner now. "With him?"
I said, "The key, Richard."
For a long second he didn't move. Then, quickly, as if to make it look casual if anyone turned the corner, he reached into his inner pocket, pulled the brass key, and held it out. Not toward Daniel. Toward me.
I stepped forward and took it. The metal was warm from his pocket. My fingers closed around it.
Daniel didn't move closer. He kept his position, so Richard would have to walk past him to get back to the ballroom. Richard looked at him, then back at me.
"No one else hears that file," he said.
May you like
"Not tonight," I said. I slipped the phone back into my clutch and snapped it shut. The diamonds at my throat caught the light again as I straightened. "You go back to the dance floor. We'll get Lily."
He stared at the clutch for a beat longer, then exhaled through his nose and brushed past Daniel without touching him, heading back toward the muffled music. Daniel watched him go, then met my eyes down the hall and gave a small nod. The path to the dressing suite was clear.
