Marcus saw the article before she could reach him. She drove to East Nashville after work, take out bags in the passenger seat. The specific kind of dread sitting in her stomach that came from knowing a conversation was going to be hard and having no way to skip it. He answered the door looking like someone who'd been sitting with something difficult for several hours. Come in, he said.
Lily was in her room, door closed. Marcus gestured to the couch and sat across from her elbows on his knees. The article's wrong about a lot of things, Viv said. I know. He picked up the compass from the coffee table, turned it over.
That's not entirely what I'm sitting with. She waited. Lily's class two parents came up to her teacher today, he said, asking questions. One of them told the teacher that it was concerning that the Callaway CEO was involved with a schoolage child's father. And the way she said involved had air quotes around it that Lily's teacher had to hear.
He looked up. She's seven. She doesn't understand why her dad is suddenly interesting to people she doesn't know. Viv felt the weight of that settle into her chest. I can't have her be collateral.
Marcus said, "I need you to understand that's not negotiable. Not because I don't." He stopped. "Not because what's happening between us isn't real to me. It is.
But she's seven. She comes first always. She should come first, Viv said quietly. That's not an obstacle. That's who you are.
Then you understand why I'm saying this. Might need to know. Viv said it without heat. I understand why you're scared. I'm scared, too.
But I'm not going to let your ex-in-laws, neighbors, and a gossip blog win a decision that belongs to us. Marcus studied her. Reev is using this. She said that comment in the article, that's not goodwill. He has a board seat and he has been waiting for a moment to suggest I'm compromised.
If I back down from this because of public pressure, I hand him the narrative. She leaned forward. And more importantly, Lily asked me on Saturday if the compass knows where home is, and I've been thinking about that answer for 4 days. I don't want to walk away from an answer I can actually feel. The room was quiet.
You spent four years being alone because someone hurt you, Marcus said. Yes, and I've spent 3 years being careful because losing someone broke something in me that I'm still rebuilding. He looked at the compass. This isn't simple. No, she agreed.
I'm not asking for simple. I'm asking for honest. From the hallway, a small voice. Dad. Lily appeared in the doorway in her pajamas regarding them both with a specific assessment of a child who has been listening to adult conversation and is deciding whether to intervene.