Adam Spink is the main antagonist of the novel Just One Night by author Heather Melo. He is the deceptive and abusive husband of socialite, Vivian Spink.
Personality[]
Adam Spink appears as the ideal movie executive, charming, delightful, wealthy, persuasive and authoritative. However, he has a much darker side, he has been secretly abusing his rich wife Vivian for a long time and invents lies to keep his secret hidden. He invents lies such as her being a cheat and flirting with other men behind his back when in fact she hates him and knows of his true vile nature. He is apparently such a good liar that even the protagonists, Ben and Joe, who are screenwriter clients of his, don't suspect a thing about him - until that is, the truth is spilled by Vivian herself to Ben's girlfriend Liz.
Adam is a xenophobe, harbouring prejudice to others from different regions. He makes fun of Liz's New York accent and belittles her, assuming that because she's from New York this makes her less wealthy than him. His greatest fear is no doubt poverty and being associated with poor people in any way. He is able to hide his dark deeds very well as he progressively puts out lies that his wife Vivian cheats on him, when in reality, he stepped over Vivian's inert body when she came in late one night and broke her expensive high-heeled shoe, he callously stepped over her and walked into his own bedroom, ignoring the plight of his wife, and he was heavily implied to have beaten her numerous times, too.
Biography[]
"Just One Night" is the story of a group of New York women coming together to have one party before one of their number, Jenna, gets married. Liz is Jenna's business friend and she brings her colleague, a loud and hilarious woman named Beth, along to experience Las Vegas. Finding that Jenna is going to embarrass them all with cringey jokes (she has already called the weekend her "last slay") Liz and Beth set off to explore the ins and outs of Las Vegas. Liz and Beth enter a bar, and almost immediately Liz is set upon by a pervert who desires her, but across the room, Ben, who has recently divorced from his own wife and left for a screenwriting opportunity, sees the problem and drives off the pervert. He introduces himself to Liz, and they get talking. Very quickly, what begins as a mere friendship takes roots.
Ben is with his colleague and friend Joe, under their boss, Adam Spink's, orders. He is a wealthy socialite and movie executive who is going to make their screenplay a success - the only catch is, that apparently Adam's wife Vivian, flirts with every man she meets - this is later revealed to be a lie created by Adam to make his wife look bad. Obviously, Ben and Joe don't know this, and they believe the conniving Adam when he tells them this. Adam says that they should bring along their own wives or girlfriends. As Adam doesn't know Ben's wife, Ben sees it as a perfect opportunity to bring Liz along as a potential new girlfriend, and invent a story saying that they are visiting her terminally ill aunt. To Ben and Joe's surprise, Liz and Beth agree to play the game, as they relate it to them over breakfast the next day. Ben and Liz spend the day together, getting to know each other,. There is a running joke that Joe is obsessed with his cat called Jennifer, (named after his ex-wife, as a way to cope with the grief of divorce) and Beth mistakenly thinks Jennifer the cat is Joe's human girlfriend.
That evening, Ben and Joe take a taxi to their boss, Adam's, house, with Liz and Beth accompanying them. Liz is not sure what to think of Vivian, because she has heard Adam's lies and believes she is going to be flirtatious - but she barely registers them all. However, over the evening, she meets Adam and falls for his charm and elegance and likes him when he finalises the movie deal with a delighted Ben and Joe.
But, later in the evening, tensions arise between Vivian and Adam, when Adam is with Liz at dinner he shows his cruel and xenophobic side by mocking Liz's New York background and saying that she must be poor because she's from New York. Liz , who is so good at understanding people's characters that she made Vivian more human and open up to her (a feat no one else, not even Adam, has managed) immediately knows Adam has a cruel side and that he is not who he seems, and she snaps at him that New Yorkers hate it when xenophobia is shown in their faces.
Vivian admits to Liz that a while ago, Adam cruelly stepped over Vivian's inert body when she came back late and broke her expensive high heeled shoe. She says that he didn't even register her, just coldly walk into his bedroom as if there was no romance between them and this made Vivian want to end the relationship. The way Vivian tenses when she's with Adam is also implied that there is physical abuse going on with Adam beating his wife, and although its never fully shown this is heavily implied because of how keen Adam is on spreading lies that his wife is a cheat. Liz comments to herself that all of California believe Vivian is a cheat and a flirt and yet when she sees the real Vivian come out and become friends with her, she sees a completely different person. Hearing Vivian talk about her abusive husband makes her feel that her suspicions are confirmed that not all is right in the marriage between Adam and Vivian.
Another running joke in the book is Liz's intense dislike for sushi, the raw Japanese fish. This dislike is proven right later on, when Joe vomits halfway through the evening after stuffing himself with sushi. Liz comments how this proves you shouldn't eat raw fish, and Adam gets his comeuppance for his cruelty when he himself is violently ill. In fact, it is somewhat implied that this was an act of revenge by Liz after hearing the story of how Adam cruelly treated Vivian.
Despite the disastrous night, the screenplay deal is still on, but Adam and Vivian mysteriously disappear in the early hours, flying back to California. Liz, who thought Vivian was a great friend, now feels let down as if she didn't know her well. There is something suspicious about how Adam flies back so soon after Vivian spilled the beans, and although this is just a theory, it is implied that either Liz or Vivian was going to take things further and get Adam in trouble with the law as revenge, and Adam flew out before anything could happen.
Aftermath[]
Despite the disastrous events of the evening, the movie deal is still up and running, and Ben flies back home to reunite with his son. He does express some doubts about whether the conniving Adam will ever take things further, possibly implying Adam still harbours bitter feelings to them up his sleeve, and, if the suspicions about him flying back early to evade the police was true, this could mean that the doubts about the movie being a success are Adam's method of vengeance.