Chương 4
Willa asked, “Did you take it?”
“No.”
“Will you say that again when the police ask?”
Nathan’s voice became soft.
“Why are you doing this?”
The question struck an old place in her. It was the tone he used when she disappointed him by refusing to be reassured.
Willa looked at her mother.
Linda pointed toward the phone and mouthed, Say nothing.
“I’m tired,” Willa said.
“I’ll come tonight.”
“No.”
“Willa.”
“I need to sleep.”
She ended the call.
Her hand shook afterward.
Linda gathered the granola wrappers and folded them into one another.
“I don’t like that man today,” she said.
“You liked him yesterday.”
“I contain multitudes.”
Celeste was arrested the morning Willa left the hospital.
A reporter shouted the news while Willa was being wheeled through a private exit. Nathan had arranged a black SUV, security guards, and a coat to cover her face. She refused the coat.
She was not ashamed of being pushed.
She was ashamed of how long she had let fear decide what counted as safety.
At home, Nathan prepared the downstairs guest room so Willa would not need the staircase. He placed water bottles beside the bed, filled the bathroom with new towels, and ordered a reclining chair recommended for late pregnancy.
He was attentive enough to make suspicion feel cruel.
For three days, Willa rested while he brought meals on trays. He attended meetings by video from the library and came in between calls to touch her stomach.
When the baby kicked beneath his hand, Nathan laughed with genuine wonder.
That was the difficulty.
His tenderness was not false.
Neither were his lies.
On the fourth morning, Willa woke to find him sitting at the foot of the bed with a document.
“My attorney drafted this,” he said.
“Your attorney?”
“Company counsel.”
Adrian Moss had taken leave from his role as outside counsel because he was married to Celeste and had witnessed the assault. The board had hired another firm.
Nathan handed Willa the paper.
It was an affidavit stating that Willa had found no executed amendments to Miriam Rowe’s estate plan during her archival work. It said any notes, receipts, or keys discovered among Miriam’s belongings appeared informal and had never been authenticated.
Willa read it twice.
“You want me to sign this?”
“It protects you.”
“From what?”
“From being accused of removing estate property.”
“I did remove estate property.”
“You took a stationery box home as part of your job.”
“And made a duplicate key.”
“Which could be characterized badly.”
“Because it was bad?”
“Because Celeste’s defense team will try to make you the aggressor.”
Willa placed the affidavit on the blanket.
“Celeste pushed me in front of two hundred people.”
“She will claim you were blackmailing her.”
“I wasn’t.”
“She doesn’t know that.”
“Do you?”
Nathan stood and walked toward the dresser.
“I know you were frightened by something you did not understand.”
“I understood Miriam’s note.”
“You understood one sentence written by a dying woman on a piece of paper.”
“She wasn’t dying when she wrote it.”
“How do you know?”
“The stationery was from the Seattle hotel. She stayed there eighteen months ago.”
Nathan turned.
Willa had not told him that before.
She continued, “The vault receipt is dated the same week.”
His face remained composed, but she saw the calculation behind it.
“Did you photograph the receipt?” he asked.
“Why?”
“Because if copies exist, they should go through counsel.”
“I asked why.”
“To preserve chain of custody.”
“You sound like a man who learned a phrase yesterday.”
His mouth tightened.
Willa felt a mean flicker of satisfaction. It frightened her.
Nathan sat beside her.
“The company is vulnerable,” he said. “Celeste has been suspended. Lenders are nervous. Tenants are threatening to delay openings. If people believe there is a secret estate document changing control, they may freeze everything.”
“What does the document change?”
“We don’t know that there is one.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
“I am afraid of uncertainty.”
“That’s my line.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
He picked up the affidavit and smoothed a crease that did not exist.
“My mother considered many structures. Foundations. Trusts. Employee stock plans. Most were never completed.”
“What if this one was?”
“Then we handle it privately.”
“Who is we?”
“Our family.”
Willa looked at the paper in his hand.
“I am your family.”
“Of course.”
“But not the kind you mean.”
Nathan stood.
“That is unfair.”
“Yes.”
“Your mother has been here four days telling you I’m some kind of criminal.”
“My mother has spent four days doing laundry and insulting the coffee machine.”
“You have changed since the fall.”
Willa touched the bruise along her hip.
“That can happen after stairs.”
He left the affidavit on the dresser.
She did not sign it.
That afternoon, Celeste’s attorney contacted Willa’s attorney and requested an interview.
Willa had not yet hired personal counsel. Nathan had assumed the company’s attorneys would represent their shared interests.
Linda drove Willa to a small firm downtown where the waiting room contained plastic plants and a fish tank with no fish.
The attorney, Naomi Bell, wore red glasses and spoke without cushioning her sentences.
“Your husband’s interests conflict with yours,” she said after reading the affidavit.
Willa looked at the framed certificates behind her desk.
“He says this protects me.”
“It protects a narrative.”
“Is it true?”
“Only you know that.”
“The document says I found no executed amendment. I didn’t.”
“You found evidence suggesting one may exist.”
“Yes.”
“And your husband wants you to state that the evidence appeared informal and unauthenticated.”
“Yes.”
“Did it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then signing would convert your uncertainty into his certainty.”
Willa looked toward Linda, who was reading a brochure about parking validation as though it contained national secrets.
“What could I be charged with?” Willa asked.
“For copying the key?”
“For everything.”
May you like
Naomi leaned back.
“That depends on what you took, why you took it, whether you had authorized access, what you did afterward, and whether anyone suffered a legally recognizable loss. I’m not going to frighten you with a menu of crimes before I know the facts.”
