“Have you always thought that was what had happened?” I asked in astonishment.
“No, in truth, I came to that conclusion along the way, once I saw Suzi and saw how uncomfortable Roy was. I don’t know, but I think that things can’t have been going well between them, however much he swears that she is the only woman for him. In reality men find it very hard to upset the status quo. It’s easier to live with your wife and your children, even if you don’t feel the same way about your wife as you used to.”
“Do you think Suzi has…well…that there’s someone else?”
“No, I don’t think so. But since Roy got involved with politics, he’s been enjoying a freedom that he never had before, and it may be that Roy hasn’t been behaving like the loving husband he would have us believe he is. It may also be that she’s met someone she secretly likes…Who knows. But I think that their problems go back a long way. Sometimes women don’t know how to rid themselves of their husbands; we need a good reason to present to the rest of society and even to ourselves. It’s the result of decades of education intended to make us into model wives and mothers, and breaking out of that role is not within everyone’s reach.”
Esther has always been able to surprise me. Then and now. Paul Hard is adamant that she is the only person I’ve ever admired. I suppose he’s right. That night I went to bed fascinated by the way that she had handled, and almost resolved, the situation.
I didn’t feel well. My stomach was still dancing inside my body. I was exhausted and the only thing I wanted was to go back to London and my apartment. But we still needed to earn the salary Roy paid us.
It was four in the morning when the trilling of my cell phone woke us up. Roy’s voice broke the silence of the night.
“You screwed me over,” he said in a thick voice. The voice of a drunken man.
“Listen, Roy, it’s four in the morning. Why don’t you go to bed?” I protested.
“Suzi is delighted with your girl’s idea that we should divorce. She told me that she’s prepared to reach an agreement satisfactory to both of us. Silence in exchange for her liberty and a significant amount of money. She wants the shirt off my back. She’s made it clear that she’s not going to let me benefit from the money I gained from her father’s suffering. She’s demanding everything I have, including the house, which I have to leave at the earliest opportunity.”
“It doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”
“You’re a bastard! Of course it’s a bad deal, you’ve played me right into her hands.”
“You were already there, Roy,” I replied.
“She was the one in my hands,” he shot back crossly.
“You know that’s not the case. Suzi was a time bomb, and now at least you can deactivate her.”
Esther, who was listening to the conversation, took the phone from me, gesturing that I should let her speak to Roy. “All yours,” I whispered, wishing I could go back to sleep.
“Roy, the way things stand, the best outcome is a divorce by mutual agreement. I’ll come up with a draft of the terms Suzi has to agree to so that she doesn’t break her word in the future. You should call your lawyer first thing in the morning. He needs to compose a document outlining the conditions of the divorce that you will both sign. Then we’ll meet with Suzi and, if she signs, job done.”
“It’s that easy…You’ve ended my marriage. I’ll never forgive you.” Roy spoke so loudly that I could hear him through the phone.
“I’m convinced that you will and that you will soon recover. I’m sure you’ll find consolation at that Madame’s place, what was her name?”
“You’re a walking disaster!” shouted Roy.
“I work for you, I defend your interests; trust me. Call your lawyer. How about we meet at his office at eight?” said Esther, not giving in to Roy’s pressure.
“It’s Sunday, or had you forgotten that?”
“This is a small town, Roy, I don’t think you’ll have much trouble convincing him how urgent it is that you see him. Make it worth his while. He’ll say yes, you’ll see. Call us at seven to give us the address. Good night, Roy; try to rest awhile.”
I had sat up in astonishment at what Esther had said to Roy.
“Are you planning to dictate the divorce agreement?” I asked her.
“No, just to give some directions. It seems fair to me that Suzi should take him for all he’s got, but with conditions. For example, she should promise that under no circumstances will she give interviews to the press, nor reveal anything that took place during the years of their marriage or the cause of their separation. If she does otherwise, she’ll have to return every last penny to Roy, with interest.”
“Where’s all this come from? You’re worse than Machiavelli.”
“Let’s go to sleep for a while, tomorrow is going to be a trying day.”
Esther kissed me on the cheek and then went to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about what awaited us in a few hours’ time.
I called Roy at seven. He had fallen asleep drunk and didn’t remember that he’d called us a few hours earlier. I told him to contact his lawyer and it took him some time to understand why. He protested and fired off a few curses before hanging up on me.
Esther was taking a shower so I asked them to bring breakfast up to the room. Chamomile tea for me and toast, orange juice, and strong coffee for Esther. Roy called us to say that his lawyer would expect us at nine, after he’d promised to pay him four times his regular fee.
When we left the hotel, the first breath of fresh air made me feel better. My stomach had accepted the morning’s chamomile tea calmly and had even tolerated half a slice of toast.
Roy’s lawyer was in a bad mood when he greeted us. Even so, he listened patiently to Esther’s instructions regarding the terms of the divorce.
“Wow, I didn’t realize things were going so badly between you…I’d heard rumors, but I assumed you were going through a crisis…In short, I’m sorry. Is Suzi in agreement?”
Roy nodded and I practically offered up a silent prayer that Suzi hadn’t changed her mind. You never knew what to expect with that woman.
We left the lawyer to work things out with Esther and waited for the document to be written up. They took almost two hours, or rather, Esther wasn’t happy with the first drafts and made the lawyer redo them until the text of the document said word for word what she thought was best. It was midday when we finished and set off for Roy’s house.
“Does Suzi know we’re coming?” I asked, fearing that she might not.
“Yes, she’s expecting us,” Roy assured me.
It was true. Suzi was expecting us, and she wasn’t alone. There was a man with her. Her father’s lawyer. An old man who’d known her since she was a little girl. Roy frowned. She hadn’t told him that she was thinking of calling her own lawyer, but Esther seemed delighted.
The elderly lawyer read the document through at least three or four times. Then he handed it to Suzi.
“Economically you come out the winner, but it’s for you to say whether you’re prepared to do what they ask of you.”
Suzi read the papers and her frown grew as she did so. She would have liked to enjoy an absolute victory, to finish Roy off. She asked her lawyer to go with her into another room. She wanted to speak with him in private. The time started to pass agonizingly slowly. I began to feel hungry. A good sign that I was recovering, but I was mainly worried that Suzi might reject the agreement. When they came back, it was her lawyer who spoke first: “Suzi does not agree that it’s necessary to announce the divorce to the media.”
“But it’s essential,” said Esther, “you have to do these things properly. It’s a case of both parties appearing before the press to say that they have, by mutual agreement, decided to put an end to their marriage, that neither of them deserves any blame because they’ve spent many happy years together, that they love and respect each other and want to maintain a good relationship for the benefit of the
ir children, and that there is no other cause for the separation than the passage of time. They need to ask the press to respect their private lives and warn them that from this point on, neither of them will say anything further regarding their decision to divorce, and that they trust the media to understand this. Roy will declare that he owed his voters this explanation, and Suzi will add that Roy is the best of men and a politician who can be trusted, and will ask that all those who supported him in the polling booths continue to do so.”
“Indeed. That’s exactly what Suzi doesn’t want to say,” explained her lawyer in annoyance.
“It’s necessary that she do so, not just for Roy’s good, but also for Suzi’s, and, most importantly, for the children’s,” Esther insisted.
“And if I don’t?”
“We’ll go back to square one. There will be no divorce,” Esther said, fixing her gaze on Suzi.
“I don’t want to say that Roy’s a good man. He isn’t!” Suzi exclaimed.
“He is the father of your children. You should think of them. It would be terrible if you destroyed their lives purely for your own personal satisfaction and your children grew up traumatized. Yes, their parents have separated, not because either of them is a monster, but because the love faded, ended.” Esther spoke with such conviction that I wanted to applaud her.
Silence reigned for several seconds. Suzi seemed to be mulling over Esther’s words and her lawyer was watching her expectantly. For his part, Roy barely managed to contain the rage that was welling up inside him.
I felt like a spectator. I could allow myself this role because Esther was taking the lead. I told myself that I ought to try to persuade her once again to marry me. I couldn’t let myself lose her.
Suzi’s lawyer began to clear his throat, then he looked at her timidly and finally decided to speak: “You have to make a decision.”
“Yes…I need to do it. My children don’t deserve to have to live with the evidence that their father is a bastard, but that means I have to keep it quiet from others too…” Suzi murmured without looking at anyone.
“You come out of this the winner, Suzi,” Esther encouraged her. “You’ll end up with everything. Roy will give up all your shared belongings and will also have to give you his own money, which he earned independently, outside of the family business.”
“Thanks to his corrupt ways,” Suzi spat.
I looked at Roy out of the corner of my eye. He was red in the face and a vein in his neck was pulsing so hard it looked like it was about to burst. Esther took hold of his arm soothingly.
“All right. We’ll sign the divorce agreement. I’ll agree to make the announcement at a press conference and say what needs to be said, but in my own way,” Suzi said.
“No, not in your own way, Suzi, in the way that is stipulated in the document you are about to sign.” Esther’s voice was solid as a rock.
We agreed that Suzi and Roy would sign the divorce papers and the appending agreements first thing Monday morning and then go on to the headquarters of the Rural Party, where they would inform the media of their decision to bring their shared life to an end. This meant that we would have to stay in Derbyshire an extra day, even though Esther had a ticket booked to go back to New York.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel, listening to Roy’s complaints. Esther and Evelyn were trying to convince him of the advantages of the divorce, but he was like a sailor whose ship was sinking.
“You’ll need to remarry once a suitable period of time has passed,” Esther advised him.
“Marry? Are you mad? I’m never doing that again,” Roy declared.
“You’ll have to if you want to remain in politics and be anything more than a mayor. You’d do well to find a woman who makes you look good. There must be some divorcée or widow of good family and limited means who would find marriage to you beneficial. It won’t be easy to find her—you’re not exactly a catch,” said Esther, unconcerned at Roy’s frown.
“I don’t want to get tangled up with a woman again, you only cause problems,” he insisted.
“Well, you’d better quit politics then,” Esther declared. “People don’t trust politicians who aren’t like everyone else. They want them to have a wife and children and be part of a happy family. In your case nobody’s asking you to fall in love, a marriage of convenience would be best,” Esther continued.
“I’ll make a list of possible candidates,” said Evelyn, laughing.
“You’ve gone completely mad! Do you think I need you to set me up with a woman? I’m perfectly happy going out with who I choose,” protested an agitated Roy.
“Now, ladies, first the divorce, then a few months of bachelorhood. Letting himself be seen with his children each week, so that nobody can say that he isn’t an extremely loving father. And later on we’ll see whether he ought to get married or not,” I intervened, taking pity on Roy.
“You’re right,” Evelyn joined in, “but we still need to get to work on a list of possible candidates so he can get to know them. Time waits for no man.”
She seemed delighted at the chance to tease Roy, but he thumped his fist on the table, making it clear that nobody should say anything further on the subject. He was not able to take a joke just then, so I signaled to Evelyn not to push it.
We arrived at Roy’s lawyer’s office at eight o’clock on Monday morning, where Suzi and her lawyer were already waiting. All that was left to do was present the petition for divorce by mutual agreement to the courts. The lawyers assured us they would take care of it that very morning.
When we arrived at the Rural Party headquarters there were more journalists than usual. They had been summoned with the information that Roy was going to make a surprise announcement.
Roy and Suzi, with very serious expressions, entered the room where the press was waiting. Standing in front of a microphone, Roy made the announcement: “I am sorry to inform you that our lawyers have submitted a joint petition for divorce this morning. It’s a painful decision which was the subject of lengthy consideration. We ask you to respect our private lives given that we don’t want this news to affect our darling children, Ernest and Jim, any more than is necessary.
“I owe a duty to my constituents and that is why I am sharing this particularly painful moment with them. Suzi is the best wife a man could dream of and I hope that life brings her great happiness, all the happiness she deserves, because her happiness is also mine and our children’s.”
Roy passed the microphone to Suzi while the journalists started to raise their hands, anxious to ask questions. Suzi took the microphone, ready to play her part: “I would like to ask you to respect our privacy at this time. We have made this decision by mutual agreement. Neither party is to blame. As happens to so many couples, our relationship has reached an end, but this does not mean that we have stopped respecting each other and maintaining the consideration and affection that we each deserve as individuals. I hope that Roy’s voters will continue to recognize his worth. Thank you very much.”
Suzi and Roy left the room in spite of the journalists’ protests. Evelyn took the microphone and asked for calm.
“You need to understand that Mr. Parker and his wife have the right to a certain level of privacy. They have informed you of a difficult and painful decision, but from this point on neither of them will make any further reference to their private lives. We ask for your consideration and respect for them and their children, two great kids who don’t deserve to see their parents’ divorce become a public spectacle. Thank you very much.”
Evelyn sounded very convincing, although I doubted the journalists would just accept this and not go digging for more information about the Parkers’ divorce.
—
We went back to London that afternoon and Esther took a flight back to New York that night. I would have liked to go with her, but she insisted that I stay a few days more to keep an eye on Roy and take care of our own interests at the agency. She was right.
r /> The news of the divorce was even featured in one of the London papers, although not the Times, which was the only one that would have consoled Roy.
The routine of the London office bored me, and although I had promised myself not to go back to Madame Agnès’s, I started to go every evening. I didn’t have anything better to do. My only acquaintances other than my colleagues were the men I spoke with in her reception rooms.
Madame was not happy to see me, but she tried to disguise her dismay at my visits.
For the first few days I insisted on being with Nataly, but neither she nor I managed to feel comfortable with each other. The shadow of Yoko hovered between us, although neither of us referred to her.
Nataly’s behavior was that of an unwilling partner and she barely spoke to me, which irritated me because her spontaneity and sass were the very things that had most amused me about her in the past. So I decided to spend each evening with a different girl.
I was late getting back to my apartment, but not a single night did I skip calling Esther. I don’t know whether she began to suspect that I was still visiting Madame Agnès’s, but she never asked me where I’d been, she just asked how things had gone at the office and, most of all, wanted to know whether there were any new developments regarding Suzi and Roy.
As for Madame Agnès, early one evening when I arrived before her other guests, she felt obliged to offer me a glass of champagne and chat with me.
We spoke of banalities to begin with, but I couldn’t resist asking her if there was any news about Yoko’s death. I knew that Nataly wouldn’t have told me if there had been.
“Case closed, my dear friend. We’ve been lucky. In truth, we worried too much. You know that I have friends in high places, and, from what they told me, not only did the autopsy confirm that Yoko died as a result of the accident, the driver also did us the favor of admitting that he had crashed into her. He couldn’t have said anything else, but you never know. The investigators found a couple of witnesses who had seen her running and falling under the wheels of the car.
“The questions of where she was coming from and why she was running remain unanswered, but it seems that there’s nothing strange in a young woman hurrying, momentarily losing her concentration, and trying to cross where she shouldn’t. Accidents like this are quite common. Or so they tell me.”