He Terminated My Lease So I Terminated Our Wedding Chapter 19
Two months later, the district attorney’s office in Maine asked to interview me again.
It was the same white-walled office. The same police officer who had taken my statement three years earlier sat across from me.
He placed the original report on the table.
“At the time, Mr. Mercer and Ms. Cass both insisted you had agreed to go to the island and had only had an argument later. They also vouched for each other that the plan was always to return within two hours.”
“And now?”
“Now, in the protective order hearing, they have each admitted under oath that you refused to board the boat, that they took your means of communication and your coat, and that they knew the tide would cut off the sandbar.”
The words didn’t add anything new to that day for me.
They only meant that at last, in a sworn record they couldn’t retract, they had admitted what I had been saying all along.
The officer asked if I was willing to give a full statement again.
I looked at my lawyer.
She didn’t nod for me. She just waited.
“I am.”
I started with the wedding venue.
Owen took my phone. Cass took my backpack. They tore off my coat, dragged me onto the boat, and ignored me when I demanded they turn back.
I described the tide covering the sandbar. The backup phone with no signal. The yellow radio in the tool shed.
By the time I reached the last line of the Mayday call, my palms were slick with sweat.
But my voice never shook.
When I finished, the officer switched off the recorder.
“We’ll submit this on grounds of unlawful restraint and reckless endangerment. A prosecutor will decide whether to press charges.”
When I walked out of the building, the sea wind was coming down the street.
Mateo was waiting at the foot of the steps with two hot drinks.
“Coffee and hot chocolate,” he said, the labels facing out. “You choose.”
I took the hot chocolate.
He looked at me but didn’t ask what had happened inside.
We walked slowly along the waterfront. In the distance stood a white lighthouse. In the daylight, its beam was faint, but it kept turning with steady regularity.
“Mateo.”
“Yeah?”
“If this goes to trial, I might have to come back here again and again.”
“I can be there with you. Or I can stay out of the courtroom. Whatever you need.”
I stopped walking.
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m not asking what you can do for me.”
He stopped, too, waiting quietly.
I tightened my grip on the warm paper cup.
“What I’m asking is—would you want to finish the coastal safety design with me? Not to take care of me, and not to wrap something up for me.”
A smile slowly reached Mateo’s eyes.
“As partners?”
“And as family.”
He didn’t hug me.
“Is that your decision?”
“Yes.”
I stepped forward first and wrapped my arms around him.
This time, no one was taking bets on me.