Chapter 7 - The Six Highlighted Words
I reached into my folder and set two years of his own emails on the table, the same six words highlighted in each one. Same paperwork, don't waste time on it.
I hadn't planned on needing them that morning — I'd brought them the way Renata had taught me to bring everything now, read or not.
"You said it to your father before you ever said it to me," I told him. "I just didn't know I was the second person you'd done this to."
Russell's attorney leaned over and murmured something in his ear. Russell shook him off without looking away from his father.
Renata slid the condition page an inch closer. "Would you like to testify, under oath, that you'd never seen this?"
Russell looked at the page. He looked at his father. For the first time in twenty-one years of quick, confident answers, he said nothing at all. In a marriage built on him always having the right words ready, that silence told me everything the documents hadn't.
Renata turned to Walter. "As the original owner, do you intend to reassert your own claim on the property?"
"No," Walter said. "I don't want the house. If there's a legal path to putting it in Diane's name, that's what I want. And if this goes to court, I'll testify to everything that happened, whatever the outcome."
May you like
Renata looked at Russell. "Then you have a choice. We take this before a judge, with Walter on the stand and these documents in evidence, or we discuss settlement right now."
Russell signed.
