“Your husband fired her.”
“Do you know why?”
“Something to do with Sergei,” he said.
“That’s right. What do you know about him?”
“He’s been leading the opposition to Petrov for years.”
The sweat that had formed on his forehead began to roll down his face. Since the apartment wasn’t overly warm, she could only chalk that reaction up to stress.
“Are you nervous, Mr. Henderson?”
“Of course I am,” he said with a rough laugh as he swiped at the sweat, sending moisture flying. “It’s not every day that detectives show up at my door.”
“How well did you know Sergei?”
“I met him a couple of times. He and Gretchen were close friends.”
“Were you aware that they dated at Oxford?”
His jaw clenched. “Of course I was. She talked about him all the time. I made a joke once about being a consolation prize for the one she really wanted. That didn’t go over well.”
“Did you view him as a rival?”
“I mean… not really. She was never his wife.”
“What’s your relationship with her been like lately?”
“It’s been really good. Since she became VP, she needed my help more with the kids, and I was there for her—and them. We were working our way back toward being a family again.”
“You were? Past tense?”
He shifted in his seat as more sweat rolled down his face, gathering on his chin. “But that’s probably not happening now.”
Sam was obsessed with waiting for the bead of sweat to drop. “Why do you say that?”
The sweat landed in his lap with a splat. “She was involved with Sergei again. He was staying at her VP house.”
“How do you know that?”
“My kids told me that Mom’s Russian friend was sleeping over. It doesn’t take a PhD to know what that means. She never got over him.”
“How did you feel when you heard they’d rekindled their romance?”
His expression hardened. “How do you think I felt? All this time, she’s been stringing me along, making me believe that the hard work I’ve done on my recovery would lead to a reconciliation, but the minute that fucking Russian lands in the U.S., she’s opening her legs for him again.”
The spew of vitriol sent a tingle down Sam’s spine.
“Where were you the night before last?”
He sat up straighter. “I was here, with my kids.”
“For the whole night?”
“Yes.”
“You never left.”
