Andre said:
“I didn’t process the request.”
“Why didn’t you call me then?”
“I did.”
Daniel frowned.
“When?”
“Twice.”
Daniel checked mentally.
He received hundreds of calls.
Then remembered.
Two missed calls from Andre’s office while he was traveling.
A text afterward saying they needed to discuss estate documents.
Daniel had replied:
After wedding. Crazy week.
His stomach turned.
Andre continued:
“Yesterday something else arrived.”
Simone closed her eyes.
Daniel saw it.
“What?”
“A signed authorization naming Simone as your representative for limited trust communications.”
Daniel’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Signed by me?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t sign it.”
“I know that now.”
Simone spoke rapidly.
“Daniel, you sign dozens of documents.”
“No.”
“You might not remember—”
“No.”
“Wedding contracts, financial documents—”
“I know what I sign.”
Her face hardened.
“You never read anything I put in front of you.”
There.
The sentence escaped before she could catch it.
Daniel stared.
Simone stopped.
Andre went silent.
Daniel whispered:
“What did you put in front of me?”
“Nothing.”
“You just said—”
“I meant wedding documents.”
“What did you put in front of me?”
Simone began shaking her head.
“Daniel, not like this.”
He stepped closer.
“What did you put in front of me?”
She looked toward the door.
The ceremony coordinator knocked.
“Daniel? Simone? We’re five minutes from processional.”
Nobody answered.
The coordinator knocked again.
Simone suddenly moved toward the door.
Daniel blocked her path.
“We are not going downstairs.”
Her eyes widened.
“You cannot do this.”
“I already am.”
“There are two hundred people waiting.”
“I don’t care.”
“My parents spent seventy thousand dollars on today.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will humiliate me.”
Daniel stared at her.
Behind the connecting wall, his daughter was sitting with half her hair cut off because Simone decided a seven-year-old child might embarrass wedding photographs.
He whispered:
“You’re worried about humiliation?”
Simone’s jaw trembled.
“I made a mistake with Lily.”
“You held her down.”
“I did not hold her down.”
“You had your hand on her shoulder.”