Page 36 of Brutal Secrets

Oh great, I think to myself. Nice one.

This isn’t about a rich, entitled older man bullying a talented younger woman and wringing her dry for as much money and sex as he can get. It’s about justice and the rule of law. Sometimes I wish I was a big, brawny Russian guy with a gun.

Jimmy looks over at me. I can see him smiling from the corner of my eye, but I try to remain serious and look straight ahead.

“Miss Smith. I see your full name is Kesera Mariko Smith. Are you Japanese?”

Maxine frowns, but I put a hand on her arm.

“I’m American. My father met my mother in Okinawa while serving our country, but I was born and grew up here,” I say, trying to keep my voice level despite the personal and irrelevant questions. In a case involving sexual misconduct, personal and irrelevant questions are the order of the day.

Douchebag pipes up from next to Jimmy, who sports a sly grin. “We plan to subpoena Miss Smith’s therapist, as well as her phone records and any journals or diary entries. We also need further disclosure regarding the father of her child. We think she’s hiding something.”

I pull my handbag against me, feeling the square block of the burner phone pressed against my leg, and thank the Lord that Vadim left me nothing but silence and inspiration for a string of hit songs instead of a paper trail or a series of text messages. I clutch the bag and finger the outline of the phone like a talisman.

My lawyer stands. “In light of your requests for further disclosure, I would like to request an adjournment for more mediation, as Mr. Ullrich’s legal team has suggested. We would like to be respectful of the court’s time.”

Jimmy looks like he’s just shat a gold egg. Nausea rides up my gullet, but Maxine shakes her head and puts her hand on my arm.

“We are amenable,” she says, rising and tapping my shoulder, and I follow her out.

Jimmy walks ahead of me, but he glances over his shoulder and winks. I want to punch the smile right off his mouth.

We file silently out of the office, and the car pulls up once we get down the steps. Across the road stands a boy with sharp cheekbones and blond curls. He looks like Vadim’s sidekick from the nightclub. He watches me as he buys a packet of cigarettes from a vendor. As he turns, I catch a glimpse of the tattoo on his neck and shiver.

Getting into the car, safe from prying eyes, I turn to Maxine. “What the hell was that about? What’s left to negotiate at this stage?”

“We’re not going to give an inch. We’re going to escalate our demands.”

“How?” I lean forward.

“When you sued him, the burden was on you to prove that you are above reproach. If this goes to trial, conversations you had with your therapist could be fair game.” She widens her eyes, willing me to consider what that means.

I bite my lip and nod at her.

“But now that he’s the plaintiff, I’m going to ask for every phone record Jimmy has. Every possible conversation I can find that might buttress your case. He’ll regret this, I can promise you.” She smiles and leans over to grasp my hand. Her cool, papery fingers rest against my clammy skin, and she grips me harder.

“I want him to regret it. I want to stop him in his tracks.” My voice comes out sounding ragged and fierce. “I can’t be the only one.”

“I do have one warning, though. You may regret this too. I know you say you don’t know Nadia’s father, but if you’ve hidden anything, phone records, conversations, I need to know.”

I nod, reaching into my bag and running my fingers along the keys of the phone that Vadim gave me, as if a genie might appear and grant me three wishes if I keep at it.

“If you’re hiding anything, then he’ll find out.”

I lean back and stare at the skyscrapers filing past and the people scurrying between them as we drive uptown. “There’s nothing to find. I lost track of him years ago, and I couldn’t even tell him about his daughter.”

What I’m saying is technically true, but Maxine must smell my evasiveness because she taps on the barrier once we near her office. “Let me out here,” she says, picking up her briefcase as the town car slows near the curb. “And think about what I said. They will use Nadia’s father against you. It’ll be a bare-knuckle fight, so I want you to think about what you’re getting yourself into.”

She gets out of the car and the door slams, breaking my circling thoughts. Vadim is a wildcard. How can I predict what role he’ll play in all of this?

Chapter Twenty-Three

The burner phone in my pocket vibrates. I suppose when you issue orders to a woman you have a child with, she doesn’t just say, “Yes, boss.”

Still, as I pull the phone out and look at the reply to my text ordering her to be ready at seven p.m., I’m still nursing the hope that it’ll be a one-word affirmative.

The screen lights up in green.

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