Chương 4
“We had dinner twice.”
“Three times.”
“The third was a client event.”
“You asked me to stay afterward.”
“Because my car wouldn’t start.”
Mercer looked around as though the details were beneath him.
“This is ridiculous.”
Claire scrolled.
“I told him in writing on January eighth that I did not want further personal contact.”
Daniels held out his hand.
“May I?”
She hesitated.
Mercer stepped forward.
“Claire, don’t.”
Alexander moved half a pace.
That was all.
Mercer stopped.
Alexander did not touch him.
He did not need to.
Claire noticed the movement and straightened.
Then she handed Daniels the phone.
Daniels read in silence.
Mercer’s breathing changed.
“You’re violating my privacy.”
Daniels kept reading.
“Richard.”
“She is.”
“Richard.”
Daniels looked up.
“You came to my office Monday and told me Claire had been using your personal relationship to influence the financing process.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
Mercer said nothing.
Daniels’s gaze remained fixed on him.
“You said she had initiated the relationship.”
Claire took one step backward.
Emma immediately moved beside her.
“You said,” Daniels continued, “that if we didn’t move her off the account, you were concerned she might retaliate professionally after a personal disagreement.”
The shock on Claire’s face was so complete that Alexander understood the trap before she did.
Mercer had not merely been pursuing her.
He had been preparing a version of events in which her resistance became misconduct.
Claire looked at Mercer.
“You told him I was threatening you?”
“I said there was a conflict.”
“You told my boss I was using you?”
“I told him there were complications.”
Daniels’s voice hardened.
“You were significantly more specific than that.”
Claire reached for the phone.
Daniels gave it back immediately.
Her hand shook so badly she nearly dropped it.
Emma caught the bottom of the case.
For a moment mother and daughter stood holding the same phone.
“I wondered why legal wanted copies of my client communications,” Claire said.
Daniels looked uncomfortable.
“We review communications whenever there’s a potential conflict.”
“You didn’t tell me there was a complaint.”
“It wasn’t formal.”
“You started reviewing me anyway.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you took me off the presentation.”
Daniels looked toward the windows.
“Yes.”
Claire laughed once.
It was not amusement.
It was the sound people made when several unpleasant mysteries resolved at the same time.
Mercer spread his hands.
“Daniel was protecting the company.”
“From me,” Claire said.
“No.”
“From me.”
“From exposure.”
Claire stared at him.
“You created the exposure.”
Mercer’s expression finally cracked.
“I was trying to prevent this exact kind of scene.”
Alexander had heard enough.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Mercer turned.
Alexander kept his voice level.
“Claire has asked you to leave her alone.”
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“Correct.”
That answer seemed to confuse him.
Alexander continued.
“This is her decision.”
He looked at Claire.
“Not mine.”
Claire’s eyes met his.
For several seconds she said nothing.
Alexander could almost see the temptation to let his authority do the work for her.
He could have done it.
He had spent most of his adult life giving orders that changed what other people were permitted to do.
But Sophie had not asked him to replace one controlling man with another.
Claire took a breath.
“Richard, leave.”
Mercer glanced at the uniformed officers.
Then at Daniels.
Then at the surrounding customers.
“This is humiliating.”
Claire’s mouth trembled.
“Yes.”
Mercer looked almost relieved, as if her admission had given him an opening.
She continued.
“It is.”
She pressed the phone against her palm.
“And I’m still asking you to leave.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Maybe.”
“You think this man is going to solve your problems because he has a uniform?”
Claire looked at Alexander.
“No.”
Then she looked back at Mercer.
“I think I kept hoping somebody would solve you for me.”
Mercer’s face hardened.
Claire’s shoulders rose and fell once.
“I’m done doing that.”
The silence afterward did not feel triumphant.
It felt frightening.
Alexander preferred it that way.
Real decisions usually did.
Mercer turned to Daniels.
“You’re going to allow this?”
Daniels folded his arms.
“I’m ending the meeting.”
“And the financing?”
“We’ll discuss that through counsel.”
Mercer’s eyes narrowed.
“You know what that could do to your quarter.”
Daniels flinched.
There was the leverage.
Not romance.
Not wounded pride.
Money.
Alexander watched Daniels carefully.
The man’s earlier silence suddenly looked less like cowardice and more like a calculation he had been making for too long.
Maybe both.
People were rarely lucky enough to possess only one bad motive.
Daniels rubbed his jaw.
“Yes,” he said.
“I know.”
Mercer waited.
Daniels did not change his answer.
For the first time since approaching the table, Mercer looked genuinely isolated.
He pointed at Claire.
“You will regret turning this into something it wasn’t.”
Emma stepped closer to her mother.
Claire said nothing.
Alexander did not either.
Neither did the officers.
Nobody gave Mercer the argument he seemed to need.
He looked around at a room full of witnesses and discovered there was no version of the moment he could comfortably control.
Then he walked out.
The door shut behind him.
No one applauded.
Alexander was grateful for that.
The espresso machine started again.
Somebody’s spoon clattered onto a saucer.
The man near the pastry case abruptly became fascinated by muffins.
Life resumed with the awkwardness of strangers pretending they had not just participated by watching.
Claire remained standing.
Her daughters clustered around her.
Daniels looked at the door.
“I should have told you.”
Claire did not answer.
“I should have told you the first time he raised the concern.”
“Yes,” she said.
Daniels winced.
“I thought I was protecting you from an allegation that might disappear if the deal closed.”
“You took me off my own account.”
“I was trying to reduce risk.”
“For whom?”
He did not answer.
Claire gave a small nod.
“That’s what I thought.”
Alexander turned away.
That conversation belonged to them.
May you like
Collins approached cautiously.
“Sir, the briefing starts in twenty-five minutes.”
