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Wes was confused. Instantly, undeniably confused.
“It’s nice to meet you too.” He finished shaking Sebastian’s hand and then looked from Sebastian to Laila and back again.
“It really is. I guess... I don’t know, I guess I’m just wondering why Laila referred to you as a surprise for me.”
“You were hoping for a chance to talk with him, right?” Laila stepped forward and stood between them.
“Jo.” Sebastian peered over at him with a tilted head and a squinted eye. “Jo told me you wanted to talk.”
Wes sighed. Of course. “Did she, um...” He glanced over at Laila again and then back to Sebastian. “Do you know why I was hoping—”
“No, sir. She didn’t mention any specifics at all. Just that you were in town and hoping you might run into me while you were
here. That was good enough for me, because the truth is...” He motioned back toward the table, and Wes followed him over
and sat across from him. “I’ve really been hoping for a chance to chat with you too.”
***
A couple of minutes later, after Laila had offered them both coffee and Wes had taken her up on it, she left them alone in
the dining room with an assurance that she and Cole would be in the kitchen preparing for the lunch crowd but not listening
to a thing—and a warning that they opened for lunch in fourteen minutes, so if they wanted privacy, they might need to talk
quickly.
“Is Brynn with you?” Wes asked after taking his first sip of coffee.
“Not this time. She has to be on air tomorrow morning in New York. I just needed to take care of a few quick things for the
Adelaide Gazette .”
“The Adelaide Gazette ? That’s still a thing?”
“I’m trying to make it a thing. But with flying back and forth, and her job and my job, and both of us writing books and all
of that... well, I haven’t quite given it the attention it deserves.” Sebastian shrugged. “What about you, Senator? What
brings you back to our beloved Adelaide Springs?”
Wes leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Off the record or on?”
“I won’t lie. I think I might be interested in a chance to talk on the record. But as far as I’m concerned right now, I’m
visiting with one of my wife’s oldest friends, and I’m fairly certain she would stab me in my sleep if I dared screw you over.”
He leaned in and rested his elbows on the table. “Speak as freely as you like. Off the record. None of it’s going anywhere.”
Wes chuckled, a sort of sad realization dawning on him, causing a lump to form in his throat. “Brynn’s the only one who abandoned
me , you know? I just realized that. And I don’t mean... Well, obviously I don’t have any hard feelings now. What right would
I have to have any hard feelings toward anyone? But yeah. She left before I left. She might be the one person in this whole
entire town I don’t owe an apology to.”
“She would jump at the chance to see you. I promise you that. Once Addie came back, I think Brynn and Laila sort of felt like
you were the only thing missing. Not that they could voice those feelings to anyone except each other and me, of course.”
“No.” Wes laughed. “Obviously not. I imagine saying my name in this town was sort of like saying ‘Macbeth’ in a theater—”
“Laila likened it to saying ‘Voldemort,’ but yeah, same idea.”
Wes liked Sebastian right way. Just as he had somehow instinctively known he would. He looked forward to getting to know him
better and even sharing with him and Brynn how Brynn’s well-publicized journey back to Adelaide Springs had begun breaking
through the layers he and Wray had built around themselves. But a quick glance at his watch informed him he only had ten minutes
of privacy left.
“Off the record, I’m dropping out of the presidential race. And I’m hoping you can be the one to help me announce it on the
record.”
Sebastian held his position, nodding slowly, and then he stood up and stepped behind the bar and poured himself a cup of coffee.
He took a gulp of it while he stood, then walked back over, sat back down, and set the coffee on the table in front of him.
“Can I ask why?”
“Why you?”
“Why drop out?”
It was then that Wes realized he was having one of the most important conversations of his career, if not his entire life,
with perhaps the most respected journalist of his generation, and he was wearing a shirt that looked like it had been run
over by a dirt bike, and then by a dump truck for good measure, just in case it wasn’t dead yet.
It said a lot to him about Sebastian’s character that he had managed to maintain eye contact with him.
“A divorce filing is going to be made public—pretty soon, I’m guessing. Honestly, I don’t know how it’s stayed concealed this
long.”
“Well, for the first few months I imagine it was held up in very confusing probate. After that, from what I understand, Wray’s
family filed a successful motion to have the case sealed or deferred or something. I’m not sure I have all the facts about
that just yet.”
Wes’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Sebastian sat there slowly drinking his coffee, waiting.
“So... you... How do you know? It’s... Are you saying it’s already public?”
“Not yet, but it’s about to be. I got a lead in my inbox from an untraceable source. Tuesday marks the expiration of the motion the family filed—”
“The family? You mean Andrea?”
“In the name of full disclosure, you should know Andi’s my friend, so this part’s a little awkward for me. But yeah. She’s
Wray’s next of kin.” Sebastian swallowed down another steaming gulp of coffee. “And it’s an annulment. Not a divorce. That’s
an important distinction, since annulments in Connecticut have to go through superior court.”
Wes had been a wreck that day. There was no denying that. He hadn’t slept, and his wife—his best friend—was dying. But he
hadn’t been so out of it as to accidentally file for an annulment instead of a divorce.
“No. I definitely filed for divorce.”
Sebastian’s eyes rose slowly over the cup in front of his face. “I’m sorry. Did you say you filed for divorce?”
Was it possible Sebastian Sudworth wasn’t quite as sharp as he seemed on TV? “Yes. On August 6, while Wray was literally on
her deathbed, I went to the courthouse and filed for divorce. And if you want a more concise answer to your previous question
about why I’m dropping out of the race, there it is.”
“Huh.” Sebastian kept studying Wes while he drank his coffee. And the silence went on a little longer than Wes was comfortable
with.
“What? What is it? What does ‘huh’ mean?”
Sebastian cleared his throat and set his coffee back on the table. Then he leaned forward again into his prior posture, arms
on the table. “Are you really unaware that Wray filed for an annulment on July 30?”
Stunned silence permeated the room, and Wes felt all the color drain from his face as his mouth once again fell open and no
words came out.
“Okay, I’m going to take that as a yes.”
“I don’t understand,” Wes managed to get out with a croaky voice. “Why would she do that?”
“Why did you do that?” Sebastian countered.
“For her. I... In retrospect I don’t know if it was the right move or not. I really don’t know. But at the time, I did
it for her.”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, Wes. I never met Wray. I don’t know anything about your marriage apart from what I read
in an annulment filing. But if that’s the case, I’d say it seems at least feasible to think that maybe she had the same idea.
Is it possible she was doing it for you?”
Of course it was. Of course it was. He reached into the pocket of his slacks and pulled out his phone, and muscle memory scrolled him straight to her final voice
mail to him.
July 30.
Of course it was.
“Just... Babe, listen to me. Trust yourself. And if you can’t trust yourself, trust me, just this one more time. It’s going
to be fine. You’re going to be fine. Alright? And no matter what, I love you. For better or worse.”
Wes wiped his eyes with his shirtsleeve. This shirt deserved a humanitarian award of some kind or other for the day it had
had. “On what grounds?”
“The annulment?” When Wes nodded, Sebastian answered, “Fraud. Based on her sexual orientation.”
“It actually said that? I mean, Wray actually said that?”
“Yeah. It was all documented in the filing. And look, like I said, Andi’s my friend.
Doesn’t mean I walk step for step with her on everything.
Also doesn’t mean I have all that much insight into what she was thinking.
I’ve only talked with her a few times since Wray died.
Since she left Adelaide Springs. So honestly, I don’t know what she was thinking.
I don’t know if she was wanting to cover up her sister’s sexual orientation or if she just wanted to make sure you didn’t get out of footing the bill for the funeral.
I really couldn’t say, and it’s not my place to try.
But here’s what I do know.” Sebastian scooted his chair closer to the table.
“I’ve been following your career a long time, and I’ve seen you bring together politicians from both sides of the aisle to work on bills that matter.
I’ve seen your polling numbers, and I know that this country somehow agrees on you when they can’t agree on whether or not the sky is blue.
And yeah, I get it—it would not have been a good look to have filed for divorce from your dying wife, especially if you weren’t willing to out her, which I assume. ..”
“I never would have. Absolutely not.”
“And for my money, that shows somewhat uncommon integrity among your peers, my friend.” Sebastian shrugged and scratched at
his beard before stretching his arms and settling folded hands over the back of his head. “Look, I believe in being an unbiased
voice, and I’ll never publicly support any candidate. Not even my wife’s childhood friend. But I’m just saying, this is manageable.
If nothing else, Wray gave you a choice. Maybe you drop out of the race, maybe you don’t, but you do have a choice now.”
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