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Silence hung between us, fragile and tight.
“Rudy,” I said, quieter. “Rudy, I know something is going on.”
He considered for a long moment. I gave him all the time he needed.
His face took on a pained, conflicted cast. It was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him, reducing him from a formidable opponent in a superficial verbal sparring match to an insecure, uncertain man. “I haven’t seen Valerie in person for over three months.”
“What?” I gasped loudly and instantly regretted it. “I’m sorry, it’s just...the two of you are attached at the hip usually.”
“If that hip isn’t hitched to Neil that particular day, yes,” Rudy said, trying for some humor. He gave up. “She calls me. Emails me. From her work email, of course. There’s ‘something wrong’ with hers.”
“Yeah, her privacy got broken.” This wasn’t my first experience with someone in an abusive relationship. And the fact that she’d been isolated from a friend as important to her as Rudy was enough of a red flag.
“I’m not supposed to call her,” he went on. “She calls me because she’s so busy. I used to hear from her every day. Now, there are no texts and no calls unless they’re from the office.”
“Have you ever seen Laurence get violent with her?” There was no delicate way to put it. “Have you seen bruises?”
“She had a lot of nasty falls when she was training for the marathon. Lost a lot of weight, too,” he noted.
“Do you think they were falls?”
“I think she had some help falling,” he said after a long moment.
“Rudy, why didn’t you tell us?” Maybe that sounded too blamey, considering the position he was in. “I mean, I know there’s been tension over the years, but Neil does care about Valerie. I care about her.”
“I didn’t say anything because you know how Neil is. He has to get involved. He has to fix things. And his bull-in-a-china-shop approach could—”
When Rudy cut himself off, cold dread froze me from the heart out. “You think Laurence is capable of…”
I couldn’t say the word. I could hardly stand to think of it.
Rudy nodded slowly as if fighting back emotion. “I think so.”
Clasping my hands atop the table, I leaned in closer. “I promise you, Neil is not going to do what he usually does. I won’t let him. El-Mudad won’t let him. But when did this all start? Laurence seemed so…”
“Charming? Nice?” Each word dripped with regret. “Protective? That’s what I liked about him. He worried about her. He took care of her. Nobody had taken care of her for, oh. Ever.”
“I’ve been running it over and over in my mind, and I can’t figure out where I was missing it. When did this start?” It wasn’t like a switch had just flipped. A regular guy didn’t become a master manipulator and abuser overnight.
Rudy gave me a sorrowful look and silence as a response.
“Emma.” I closed my eyes, and a hot tear rolled down my cheek.
“He waited until she was weak,” Rudy said, his voice choking up. He pulled a silk handkerchief from the breast pocket of his jacket and dabbed the corner of his eye. Clearing his throat, he continued, “It would have happened eventually. Valerie is constantly up and down. There was always going to be something, and I think he knew that. It was easy for him to assume every role in her life when she was so shattered.”
I wanted to overturn the table. It was so unfair. “What do we do?”
“You do nothing. You stay as far out of it as you possibly can. There’s a reason Laurence is trying to drive a wedge between Valerie and you two, just like there’s a reason she can’t communicate with me freely, now,” Rudy said, his careful social walls slowly erecting once more. “It’s not like you can go to her and ask.”
“That’s true. Neil is now running all communication about visitations through an intermediary. Although…” I shook my head. “I don’t know if I should tell you this.”
“I’ve been honest with you, Sophie. I think you should be honest with me,” Rudy said, lifting his chin a notch.
“Don’t get insulted. There is a lot more at stake here than your pride.” I didn’t care if I pissed him off. Rich men often needed ego checks, and I wasn’t going to hold back just because he wasn’t my rich man. “We’re discontinuing visitation for Valerie and Laurence.”
Rudy sat up straighter. “You can’t do that to Valerie.”
“It’s not about Valerie. It’s about protecting Olivia from an unsafe situation.” Especially now that I had confirmation of my suspicions. “I don’t want her around a violent man. And they… Rudy, I have to know. Were they planning to kidnap Olivia?”
He pursed his lips. “This isn’t a soap opera, ma’am.”
“No, it’s not a soap opera. But when Olivia tells us that she’s afraid to go with them because they were talking about keeping her? And then they tried to get her legally taken away from us?” I searched his face for any sign of remorse or guilt. All I saw was doubt and shock. “You had no idea.”
