A knot tightened in my throat, and again Elaine paused. But instead of speaking, she took another deep breath and continued. “As you can imagine, this is very sensitive and quite humiliating. I hope we can keep this off the record.”
My head dropped at the phrase. It was the same thing he’d said to me after Patrick had revealed the location of their offices. Off the record.
“Your friend, Sloan Reynolds,” she finished. Then she lowered the pages to her lap.
His friend. I couldn’t speak. I had gone numb and nothing felt like it made sense anymore.
“He was spying on you?” Her voice cracked high with disbelief. “Was Patrick in on it, too?”
I shrugged, blinking slowly. Then I forced the words. “He responded. I printed out the whole exchange.”
She lifted the pages again and folded the first one back. “Dear Sloan,” then she glanced at me, but I was still sitting frozen, unable to feel. “I’m sorry to hear of your marital difficulties. I did observe your wife this week. She was with another female at the Cactus Flower Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona. But I have to confess, I did not observe her with any male guests. As far as I could tell, she was alone the entire week. Sorry not to be more help. No payment needed. Cordially, Derek.”
At that she stared at the printout, her brow lined. She flipped the pages back and forth, then she turned to me in her seat. “Weren’t you and Derek…?”
For a moment, all I could do was stare at my lap in stunned silence. Then I slowly nodded, finding my voice. “We were together,” I said softly.
Her eyebrows flew up. “You slept together?”
“Several times.”
“But he said…” She looked out the front window a moment. “I don’t understand.”
I reached for the door handle, lifting it, and getting out of the car. I went around and opened the hatchback, unzipping my suitcase and digging through the file folders I’d placed on top until I found the one I was looking for. I walked back to the passenger’s side and got in, pulling the door closed. Then I reached down by my feet and dug out the small silk pouch I’d hidden in my bag.
“Would you please do something for me, Elaine?” I looked at my friend with such seriousness, she immediately nodded. “I need you to drive us to Princeton. There’s something I have to do.”
Her jaw dropped. “But—”
“Please? Sloan can’t call the shots any more.”
I watched as she chewed her lip. Then she grasped the steering wheel and turned her car toward Interstate 95.
Chapter 15 – The Humiliating Truth
The Alexander-Knight office was easy to find using the directions on my smart phone, and we were pulling into the corporate entrance in less than two hours. Neither Elaine nor I had spoken much on the drive over. She had turned on talk radio shortly after leaving Baltimore and withdrawn into her own private thoughts. I could only assume she was processing like me, and I welcomed her silence. I wasn’t sure how well she was keeping up with Patrick since our trip to Scottsdale, but I was almost certain he hadn’t told her about this.
As for me, I was still reeling from my discovery, and I’d spent the entire time thinking and re-thinking what I planned to say. Derek had lied to me, slept with me, known the entire time I was dealing with a pending divorce and a suspicious husband, and he’d never said a word.
Sloan called him his friend. The very thought of them being friends made me sick and angry and nauseated and… miserable. I wanted to believe Derek didn’t know the extent of Sloan’s atrocities, still if he thought of himself as a hero, a gallant fellow who’d protected my honor, I wanted to be sure he knew the full extent of how he had helped his “friend.”
Elaine pulled into the front parking lot and sat in the car looking up at the building. The exterior looked exactly as it did on the company website—limestone and blonde brick, silver windows, four floors. It was one of several office buildings clustered in a pentagon formation and sharing a common entrance and courtyard. In keeping with the season, it was decorated in orange, black, and purple, corn stalks and autumn wreaths. Someone had hung what appeared to be a witch smashing into the trunk of one of the trees. Stuffed arms and legs were splayed on either side of it along with a wrecked broomstick. I was sure it was meant to be funny, but nothing in me felt like laughing.
“I don’t think I can go in there,” Elaine whispered. “I can’t see Patrick right now. I still haven’t decided what I want to say to him.”
“Well, I know exactly what I want to say.” I grasped the door handle and stepped out of the car. “Wait here. I won’t be long.”
I had the two manila folders in my hands and the small silk pouch. What I intended to do would take less than fifteen minutes.
Stepping into the lobby of Office Building A, I scanned the directory until I located them on the fourth floor. The only thing I hadn’t considered was they might be out to lunch, but I wasn’t letting anything slow me down. I was acting on pure adrenaline now.
The elevator opened to a sleek, glass and stainless suite. Their entrance had the names Alexander & Knight lasered into the glass doors, and a receptionist’s desk was situated right in the center of an open foyer with white leather chairs placed near a low, mahogany table.
Copies of Forbes, Time, and oddly an OK! magazine were arranged on the table. I stalked out, headed straight for his door. The blonde receptionist said something I ignored. I scanned the plaques outside each until I found the one reading Derek Alexander. I didn’t even knock before entering his huge, corner office. He was turned in his black leather desk chair looking out a wall of windows, but when he heard the door, he started speaking.
“I don’t know how you do it, Patrick,” he breathed, turning the chair around as he finished. “I can’t stop thinking…” His eyes locked on mine. “About her.”
Derek stood quickly, and seeing him again for the first time since that week,