Chapter 2 What the Door Was Hiding

She could have walked away. Later, she would think that a hundred times. She could have turned around, gone back down the hall, and let the last three years stay whole for one more night. But her hand was already on the handle, and the door was already swinging inward, because some part of her needed to see it with her own eyes. Vanessa sat on the edge of Naomi's drafting table. Julian stood between her knees. His hand was in her hair. For a full second, nobody moved. The rain ticked against the window. The wall clock, Naomi's clock, the one she'd bought for the first day, kept counting. "Naomi," Julian said. He didn't jump back. That was what she would remember most. He simply let his hand fall, slowly, as if he'd been caught borrowing a pen. "Oh," Vanessa said, and smiled. Small. Almost sorry. "You weren't supposed to see it like this." "See it like what?" Naomi's voice came out thin and strange, someone else's voice. "Like my fiancé with his hands on my best friend?" "Naomi, listen-" Julian began. "Four days." She looked at the dress, then at him. "I'm wearing this for you." "It isn't about the wedding," Vanessa said, sliding off the table and smoothing her blouse. "It's about the company." Naomi laughed. It cracked in the middle. "The company." Vanessa picked up a folder from the desk, thick, tabbed, officially stamped, and held it out. "Bright Media is buying a majority stake in Hale & Cole. I've already signed on my side. The dissolution clause in our partnership agreement means your shares convert to a payout, effective Friday. It's generous." The room tilted. "You're forcing me out." Each word felt like lifting a stone. "Of my own firm." "Of our firm," Vanessa said gently. "Which I've been carrying for two years while you chased the prestige projects. Someone had to do the actual business. Julian's family can give us capital, contracts, everything you refused to take." "I refused because it came with strings!" "It came with a future, Naomi." A flash of something hard finally broke through the sweetness. "You can't build cathedrals and pay rent with the applause." Naomi turned to Julian. She hated that her eyes were burning. "And you. You let me pick flowers with you. You let me cry over seating charts." He had the decency to look away. "I never meant for it to hurt like this." "You meant for it to happen." "Vanessa understands the business side of my life," he said quietly. "You've always been... an artist. It was never going to work long-term. I was going to tell you after the honeymoon." After the honeymoon. Something inside Naomi went perfectly still, like a held breath, like the second before glass breaks. She set the folder back on the desk, very carefully, and looked at the woman who had once stayed up all night holding her hair back in a hospital corridor. "How long?" Vanessa didn't answer. Julian did. "Since the spring." Naomi nodded slowly. She pulled off her engagement ring, three years, one small diamond she'd said was plenty, and set it on top of the folder. Vanessa's phone buzzed. She glanced at it, then at Naomi, and her smile returned, thin and cool. "By the way," she said. "I've already had security deactivate your key card. Please don't make this ugly."