The Demolition Clause

Chapter 3 The Condo

Diana came to the condo at six. I was not supposed to be there. I was. I sat at the kitchen island with a glass of water and the petition Estelle had couriered over, face down.

Marcus opened the door like a host. "Tessa. I didn't know you'd be home."

"I live here."

Diana stepped in behind him. She was wearing a coat that cost more than my last commission. She smiled at me the way people smile at a dog they hope will stay in the other room.

"Tessa. We were just going to go over some numbers. Port stuff. Boring."

"Halloran Holdings," I said. "Fifty-fifty. Real estate acquisition. You photographed my back lot yesterday. Ruiz told me."

The smile held for one second too long. Marcus set his keys down too carefully.

"It's a development vehicle," he said. "For after. If the city pays out, we might want to roll into something else. Tax reasons. You wouldn't--"

"I would be interested," I said. "I am the owner. There is no we on the deed. There is a ten thousand dollar memo that says divorce settlement. There is a three-year-old who looks like you, Diana, and I am done pretending I haven't done the math."

Diana looked at Marcus. Marcus looked at the whiskey cabinet. I turned the petition over.

"This gets filed in the morning unless you both sit down and tell me, in sentences I can record, what the Port Alma project actually is."

They sat. They did not want to. That was the first honest thing the evening produced.

Marcus talked. He had a contact in planning. He had known the condemnation list two weeks before the notices went out. He had wanted his name on Bayshore so that when the check came it would land in a marital pot he could split, or better, in an LLC he already controlled. When I would not add him to the deed, he tried the ten thousand. A test. A goodbye if I took it and ran. A claim if I stayed and spent it.

"You thought I'd cash it and be grateful," I said.

"I thought you'd be reasonable," he said. "You always are."

Diana said nothing useful. She looked at her phone. I looked at the petition.

"Get out of my condo," I said. "Both of you. Tonight. The locks change in the morning."

Marcus laughed. "This is my home."

"Your parents helped with the down payment. Estelle is tracing that. If it was a gift to both of us, we'll divide it. If it was a gift to you, you can have your half of a place I never liked. Bayshore is not in the conversation. Bayshore was never in the conversation. That was the whole point of the ten thousand."

He stood. For a moment I thought he might do something stupid with his hands. He did something stupider with his mouth.

"You'll regret this when the appraisal comes in low and you have no one to negotiate with the city."

"I'll regret a lot of things," I said. "Not this."

They left. I called a locksmith. I slept on the couch because the bedroom still smelled like his gum. In the morning the locks were new and the petition was filed and the ten thousand sat in my account like a stain I refused to scrub.