Page 32 of The Perfect Revenge
“After I first left, it was pretty awful.She was really mad because of how things happened with you know, my fiancée.”
“You mean the affair?”Susannah piped in.
Jessie knew that her partner was intentionally needling Borowitz to keep him off guard, but she wasn't sure that was the best course of action.
“Yes, after the affair,” he shot back.
“Did things get better?”Jessie pressed.
"Eventually.She never forgave me, but we managed to mostly bury the hatchet for Devon's sake.And I think me not fighting her on what she wanted in the settlement probably helped.She wanted generous alimony and child support.I gave it.She wanted to make the beach house her primary residence.I said fine.I was moving to San Francisco anyway.In the last few months, we reached—not friendliness, but maybe a détente."
“And she’d started dating again,” Susannah noted, still pushing buttons.
“Yes.”His voice was flat and emotionless.
“How did you feel about that?”Jessie asked.
“Is this a therapy session or police questioning?”he suddenly demanded.
“So you didn’t love it,” she concluded.
He was quiet again.He started to speak, then seemed to think better of it.After regrouping, he tried again.
“Look, I’m just going to be straight with you.If I had a lawyer here, they’d probably say it was a bad idea, but I don’t care.I was still in love with Maggie.”
Jessie was genuinely surprised by that response.
“Did you tell her that?”she asked.
"Are you kidding me?"he scoffed."I betrayed her trust by cheating with someone she considered a friend.I upended her entire life.And then I'm going to come back to her a little while later and say, 'I made a mistake?My fiancée is actually super annoying, and I want to get out of the wedding.Would you please take me back?’No way.She had moved on.I’d only be embarrassing myself.”
“Any chance your fiancée knew how you really felt?”Susannah asked.
“No.”He shook his head.“She’s oblivious.Before this happened yesterday, she had me spend an hour deciding on banquet table linen colors.She thinks we’re good.”
“And how is she taking it now?”Jessie asked.“Suddenly she’s going from part-time stepmom to full-time mom.”
“I don’t think she’s really processed that yet.But she adores Devon.When I left the room, she was in the bed with him, stroking his hair.”
Jessie thought this was as good a time as any to broach the subject she’d wanted to address with Borowitz all along.
“Speaking of Devon, we came across some information in our investigation indicating that you and Maggie pursued fertility treatment with Dr.Andrew Brennan, but that it didn’t work out.”
“You can get access to that information?”He looked surprised.
“We’re investigating her murder, Mr.Borowitz,” Jessie reminded him.“We are pursuing every angle.That’s why we need to know, did you go to a different doctor once things didn’t pan out with Brennan?”
“We did,” he said.
“And that led to Devon?”
He was silent.Jessie studied him closely.She was toying with a theory in the back of her head, and his response wasn't doing anything to make her disregard it.She pushed.
“Mr.Borowitz, was Devon conceived through a fertility clinic?Is he your biological child?”
He squirmed before finally replying.“Devon came from Maggie’s egg and my sperm.Do the particulars really matter?”
“They might,” she said, “and I’d love a straight answer.”
