Page 157 - harryDEC12_clean.iba

When we have finished the meal. Klaus Friedrich Weyrauch turns to me and says,
“Your marriage is not happy. Everyone sees how you’ve changed; you’re led about like a dog on a leash. You’re thankful if you get a pat, if you ever do. Do you still have sex, or does she make you starve on the long leash?”
I remain silently defiant. There was not much I could say against that. But I also do not want to let him have the triumph of having his last comment hit the nail on the head.
"Are you really sure that the child is yours?”
Aha, I think, now we’re getting to the point. So he too is thinking about that, about what I have isolated and delegated to my subconscious where it is constantly gnawing at my soul. So I answer defiantly:
“Who is sure? The only sure thing is who the mother is.”
An admission of my doubts, I think. That’s how Klaus Friedrich will interpret it.
“In any case, my dear son, I want to tell you Martha is becoming more and more a liability, not only for you, but for everyone, the family and the business. Her interference is intolerable."
It is clear to me what is happening here, not only because of the provocation on Christmas Eve – his wife would have taken care of that - but perhaps not only she alone, perhaps people in the business world were already talking about it. Aggression is rising up in me. It is as though Martha was sitting beside me, as though I was moving in her orbit, and for a moment I feel the need to start a fight. But then I think again, waiting lurking for his next statement.
"A divorce, which would probably be appropriate, is not advantageous, it would damage your reputation and the business. Twice divorced is a sign of instability, unreliability, we can’t afford that. But I’ve thought of another possibility.”
I lean forward: what was about to come?
"Your wife has often said how nice it’d be to have a holiday house in the South ... it was in France, wasn’t it?”
“That’s correct,”
I answer.
“In the hinterland of Nice, to be exact, in Saint Paul de Vence, where we were last October. But the cost would rule that out, the property there is very expensive.”
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