Her heart dropped as she motioned for him to hand them over. Von slid a small stack of photos across the table.
She lifted her glasses on top of her head, revealing even more starkly to Von her gorgeous hazel eyes, as she looked at those photos with unwavering attention.
“I thought you needed those glasses to see.”
“Not up close.” Trina was myopic. She could see fine up close. It was the distant sight that gave her fits.
But not as many fits as those photos were giving her. She even stopped going through the photos and closed her eyes in disgust. Then she exhaled, opened them again, and continued to peel through the remaining ones.
As she did so, the waitress came to their booth. “Coffee black for me,” Von said. Then he looked at Trina. “What would you like to drink, Tree?”
But Trina was immersed in those photos and didn’t so much as glance away or even realize she had been asked a question.
Von looked at the waitress. “Two coffees,” he said, and the waitress left.
The waitress would return with their coffees as Trina was going through those photos for the third time. It was as if she was looking for something that she might have missed. Like the camera angles. Like something in the background of one of those photos that might give her some clue.
But nothing was there. That was why she exhaled, put back on her glasses, and slid the photos back over to Von.
“Something else, isn’t it?”
Trina was nodding her head. “I should have known it would start up again,” she said. “I knew that shit would. But I was so afraid.”
“You did the right thing. You kept them at bay for a whole year. But this was inevitable.”
Trina nodded again. “And I knew it even then. But . . . I felt like my back was against the wall. I felt I would have told Reno by now. But I couldn’t.” Then she looked at Von with a seriousness that caught him short. “This shit can’t come out.”
“You don’t think I know that?”
“No matter what,” said Trina with a look that could not hide her sense of urgency, “this cannot come out.”
“I’m involved in this too, remember?” Then he shook his head. “It’s a mess, Tree. Just a mess. It’s a nightmare.”
“What’s the ask this time?”
“The same thing they wanted before they settled for what they could get last time.”
Trina was shaking her head even before he finished his sentence. “That’s not happening and their asses know it.”
“It’s absurd,” agreed Von. “And if they don’t know it, then they’re idiots. They have to know it. But that’s the ask. And Trina?”
Trina looked at him. “What?”
“They said this time they will not settle. And they mean it.”
Trina’s heart dropped. She leaned back in her seat.
“At some point you’re going to have to tell him, Tree.”
Trina didn’t respond. Her anguished face spoke for her.
“Maybe if I go to him and tell him,” said Von.
But Trina frowned. “You stay away from my husband, are you crazy? You don’t seem to understand what this will cost me. I’ll lose everything, Von. My husband, my children, my life!They will never want to have anything more to do with me, don’t you get that?”
Von got it. “Do you think, if he found out, that he’ll give in to their demands to save his reputation?”
“Hell no!”
