Reid
Maya should be deep in her bake sale prep right now. She should be juggling who baked what, making sure there was variety, that there was enough, that it all came together.
He opened the freezer. The cookie dough taunted him.
No one was going to bake for her now.
Because of him.
Reid pulled out the container, pulled open the lid.
She had made this. Because she had an event to run. Because people were relying on her.
Because she wanted to give to the community.
He replaced the lid, put the container back on the shelf. He closed the freezer door.
A tray of cookies wasn’t enough. Not on its own.
He ran a hand through his hair.
He could seek out the contractors. He could speak to the people she’d worked with professionally, push, correct, force them to reconsider.
But this—
This was the community. Their neighbors, the people who signed up for things because Maya asked them to, the people who showed up with cakes for a bake sale.
He had taken that from her.
He exhaled slowly.
The event was a week away.
He wasn’t going to use her cookie dough. He didn’t deserve that, the community didn’t deserve that.
But he could follow a recipe. He could bake a cake. He could bake ten cakes if he had to. Twenty.
He grabbed his keys from the counter. He was going to need more flour.
Reid was waiting for his coffee when Julian Cross stepped out from beside the coffee cart.
The bruise had yellowed at the edges now, dark along the jaw where Reid’s fist had landed. Julian had always been careful about his appearance. Expensive and polished.
He looked less polished now.
Good.
“You son of a bitch,” Julian said. “They fired me.”
The barista set Reid's coffee on the counter. Reid took a sip before he answered.
“They found something, then,” Reid said.
Julian’s expression tightened.
“What did they find?” he pressed.
Julian’s mouth twisted. “Nothing that concerns you.”
“Client funds? False expenses?”
“Fuck you.”
“Reimbursements?”
Julian’s face changed by a fraction.
Reid had been right. Brian and Wilson and Diane had been right. Julian had not only stolen from Maya, he had been dirty everywhere his hands touched money.
“You don’t understand what you’ve done,” Julian said.
Reid almost laughed. He stepped closer.
“No,” Reid said. “You don’t understand what you’ve done.”
Julian’s eyes flashed. “My career is gone.”
“Maya spent a weekend in a cell.”
“They want me to pay back my bonuses. They’re talking about restitution.” Panic was bleeding through the anger now. “Do you know what that means? Do you know what they can take from me?”
“Everything, I hope.”
Julian stared at him.
Reid held his gaze.
“It still won’t be enough,” Reid said.
Julian’s breathing was hard. His polish was cracking in real time, and Reid could see the ugliness underneath now. Not charm, not confidence, not the harmless old school friend who had sat at Reid’s table and smiled at Reid’s wife.
Greed and fear and entitlement.
“You think this helps her?” Julian asked. “You think getting me fired clears her name?”
Julian’s firing did not give Maya back anything. Not the morning at the fun run, not the cuffs, not the holding cell, not the plea deal sitting in front of her like a loaded gun.
“I know it doesn’t clear her name,” Reid said. “It doesn’t undo what you did. It doesn’t touch what I did.”
Julian’s mouth opened.
“But it makes me feel better,” Reid said. “Seeing you suffer.”
Julian leaned in, voice low. “Be careful.”
Reid had spent his life being careful. Careful with rules, careful with appearances, careful with the clean, cowardly distance he had mistaken for objectivity while his wife begged him to believe her.
He was done being careful. This was his burn-it-to-the-ground era.
“Buckle up, pal,” Reid said. “Losing your job is just the beginning.”
Julian’s face hardened. “You can’t prove anything.”
Reid took another sip of coffee and smiled at his old friend.
Let him stand there in his shiny suit with his ruined career and the first real consequence of his life exploding in his face.
Reid took a step closer, close enough that Julian had to tilt his chin up.
“You stole from my wife’s charity,” Reid said. “You framed her for it. When I arrest you, it won’t be because you skimmed from your job or lied to corporate clients or padded your pathetic reimbursements.”
Julian’s jaw flexed.
“It will be for Maya.”
Julian said nothing.
Reid looked at him for another moment, then turned away.
Behind him, Julian’s voice came hard and brittle.
“She’ll never take you back, you know.”
Reid didn’t stop. Maybe not, but that wouldn’t save Julian from his vengeance.
His team were waiting for him in the conference room.
The lights were off and the projector screen pulled down at the front of the room.
Brian was standing beside it with a clicker in his hand. Diane sat at the table with a legal pad in front of her. Wilson leaned against the wall, arms crossed.
Reid could tell it was a trap.
He stopped in the doorway. “I have work.”
“This is more important,” Diane said.
Wilson pointed to the chair nearest the screen. “Sit down, Lawson.”
Brian brought up the first slide.
WIFE 101: A REMEDIAL SEMINAR
Underneath, in smaller font:
Subtitle: How Not To Arrest Yours
Reid closed his eyes.
“Sit,” Diane repeated.
He sat.
Brian clicked to the next slide.
SLIDE 1: YOUR WIFE IS NOT A SUSPECT UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE
Reid stared at the screen.
Brian cleared his throat. “Key learning objective: when your wife, whom you know intimately and who has spent years demonstrating moral excellence, is accused of a crime that is wildly inconsistent with her character, you do not begin with, ‘Ah, finally, the truth.’”
Wilson nodded in agreement. “You begin with, ‘Something is wrong.’”
Diane added, “Or, at minimum, ‘I should recuse myself before I destroy my marriage and several people’s faith in due process.’”
Reid dragged a hand down his face. “Is this necessary?”
“Yes,” all three of them said.
Brian clicked again.
SLIDE 2: BEING OBJECTIVE DOES NOT MEAN BEING STUPID
There was a stock photo of a man staring thoughtfully at a laptop. Wilson would have been the one who added devil horns.
Reid looked at him. Wilson looked back, unrepentant. “Visual learning aid.”
Brian clicked to the next slide.
SLIDE 3: THINGS WIVES DESERVE
A bulleted list appeared.
Belief
Loyalty
The benefit of the doubt
Housing
Not being handcuffed by their husbands
Snacks
“Snacks are important,” Wilson said.
Brian pointed at the screen. “You will notice item four. Housing. This is a baseline expectation in most marriages.”
Reid said nothing.
Brian lowered the clicker. “You threw her out, man.”
“I know,” Reid said quietly.
Brian clicked again.
SLIDE 4: APOLOGIES ARE NOT COUPONS
Underneath:
They cannot be exchanged for forgiveness, sex, access, emotional labor, or immediate restoration of marital privileges.
Diane said, “You may apologize. She still owes you nothing.”
“I know that,” Reid said.
“Good,” Brian said. “Because if you mess this up, I will personally hit you with this projector.”
Wilson raised his coffee in salute.
Brian clicked again.
SLIDE 5: THE LAW OR YOUR WIFE
Below that:
Choose accordingly.
Reid’s throat worked.
Diane leaned forward. “Your job matters. The law matters. Your marriage will always matter more.”
Shame rose in him, hot and familiar.
BONUS MODULE: HOW TO GROVEL WITHOUT MAKING IT WEIRD
Wilson brightened. “This one has animations.”
Reid dropped his head into his hands.
Brian laughed.
By the time Reid got home, the words from the final slide had followed him across town.
The law or your wife. Choose accordingly.
Thomas Merritt was waiting for him on the porch."I'm going to say something you won't like," he said.
"Alright."
"Let her go."
Panic flared through him at the very thought of it.
"She deserves a clean break," Thomas said. "If you love her, give her that."
Reid had spent his entire life being disciplined and rational and controlled. None of those things mattered when it came to Maya. He was not going to let his wife go because Thomas told him to. The truth came from somewhere deeper than pride. Deeper than reason.
Reid didn’t realize he had curled his hands into fists until he felt his wedding ring biting into his skin. “No," he said.
Loving her no longer felt voluntary. He couldn’t even remember a time it had been. He would crawl if she asked him to. He would do it gladly.
"No," Reid said again. "She can tell me it's over and I will respect that.” He held Thomas's gaze. "But until that happens, I’m going to keep trying to win back the woman I love.”
The thought of her giving up on them made his lungs feel tight.
Thomas's expression didn't change. “You know you’re not good enough for her.”
“Of course I'm not good enough for her," he said, throwing his arms out. "I have always known that. I knew it the first time I saw her at that council meeting and I knew it on our wedding day and I knew it every morning I woke up next to her.”
Thomas opened his mouth. Reid kept talking.
"But nobody else is good enough for her either.” He looked down at his ring again, then back up.
The truth of it lived in him. His chest ached with the love he had for her. Literally ached.
"When it mattered most, I failed her completely. I know that. I will know that every day for the rest of my life."
He was hers. Entirely hers. And he didn’t care that he was almost shouting now, that his neighbors could hear him. Humiliation no longer registered as a deterrent.
"But I'm not leaving," Reid said. "I'm not making that decision for her.” He wanted Thomas to understand how crazy he was about Maya. "She gets to decide. Not me. Not you. Her."
A long silence.
Thomas looked at him for a long moment. Then he smiled broadly.
“Are you going to invite me in?” he asked with a smile. “I’ll have coffee if you're making some."
Reid felt his mouth drop open.
“You needed to hear yourself say it, son,” Thomas said. "You needed to say it out loud."
Reid stared at him.
"Nobody is good enough for her," Thomas said. "So what. Show up anyway." He nodded toward the door. "Coffee, Reid."
Reid fumbled with his keys.
Nobody is good enough for her.
So fucking what.