“The invitation smelled like a trap to me,” he said, “a way of getting my implied consent to publish the excerpt. My instinct was still to say no. They’re nervous of being sued, I could sense that, and I didn’t want to do anything to make them less nervous. Also I didn’t want to give any legitimacy to the idea that there really are two sides to this story, which there are not. I know I can’t expect anyone, including you guys, to just take that on trust. You can’t not have doubts. I understand that. I’m not asking for belief anyway, just advice. And maybe some pity! But I certainly wasn’t going to give any ground on it. On the other hand, I felt I should keep my options open in case they decided to print the fucking thing anyway . . .”

He’d skirted the issue, ignoring Sauer’s invitation and simply restating that the article was defamatory. His curt email produced another promising silence. Two whole days passed, and then Sauer wrote: “Marco, I hear your concern. Definitely don’t want to publish anything defamatory. Running the piece through legal and will get back to you. Thanks ever so for your patience!”

“He sounds kind of creepy,” Caitlin said.

Marco nodded.

“Anyway, a couple more days pass and then he sends this.” He read from his phone:

“Marco, Legal feel the piece is not defamatory and so we want to go forward with publication. Have you by chance given further thought to writing something from your side? We want to offer you every opportunity to put your own case if you dispute Julia’s version of events. Think our readers will find the two perspectives on this fascinating. As said, we’re happy to give you equal space, and can assure you we won’t edit (though just bear in mind we’re a ‘family’ newspaper!!).”

“How could their legal department just unilaterally decide it wasn’t defamatory?” I asked. “It’s not like they have any way of proving it, I assume?”

“Of course not,” Marco said, frowning. “Frankly I thought they were bluffing. I still do. It doesn’t make sense. This is the kind of thing juries award millions in damages for. I might come out of this a pariah but there’s a good chance I’ll be an extremely rich pariah.”

“You could move up here, Marco,” Caitlin said. “We’d still socialize with you.”