Chương 10
Tyler’s shoulders dropped visibly.
“Can we see him?”
“One person for now.”
Tyler looked at me.
“You go.”
“Why?”
“He’ll want you.”
“He’ll want someone he can insult.”
“That’s also you.”
I went back.
Robert lay propped in a hospital bed with monitoring leads beneath his gown and a blanket over his legs.
He looked furious to be alive in another medical room.
“Congratulations,” he said when I entered.
“You got your way.”
“I get very little credit for this.”
“They’re keeping me.”
“For how long?”
“Observation, they say.”
“That sounds sensible.”
“You sound like Franklin.”
“Cruel.”
Robert turned his head toward the monitor.
“They say it may have been stress.”
“I’m shocked.”
“You’re becoming sarcastic.”
“I’ve had a long day.”
“So have I.”
That shut me up.
For a while we listened to the soft electronic rhythm beside his bed.
A cart squeaked past in the hall.
Someone two rooms away coughed repeatedly.
Robert picked at the adhesive on the back of his hand.
“Did Tyler leave?”
“He’s in the waiting room.”
“Good.”
“You expected him to?”
“I might have at his age.”
I pulled a chair closer.
“Daniel?”
“Hasn’t contacted me since the call.”
“That means nothing.”
“I know.”
Robert looked at the ceiling.
“I should have seen it.”
“Maybe.”
He turned his head toward me.
“That was not the response you were supposed to give.”
“You dislike the other response.”
“Which one?”
“That you couldn’t possibly have known.”
He considered that.
“Yes.”
“I do dislike it.”
“You trusted your children.”
“One of them used that.”
“Maybe two.”
He looked away.
“Melissa.”
I waited.
“She asked me for money last year.”
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“She wouldn’t tell me what it was for.”
“Did Daniel know?”
“Probably.”
Robert rubbed his thumb along the blanket edge.
“She got angry.”
“What kind of angry?”
“The quiet kind.”
“That family specialty again.”
He glanced at me.
“You’ve become brave while I’m attached to machines.”
“Strategic.”
His expression softened.
“She said I helped Daniel every time he failed but treated her like she was irresponsible.”
“Was she right?”
Robert looked toward the window.
“Partly.”
That answer cost him.
“What did Daniel need the seventy-five thousand for in 2018?”
“Payroll.”
“Same explanation?”
“Yes.”
“Did you verify it?”
“No.”
“Did Linda know?”
Robert’s face tightened.
“She was sick.”
“So no.”
“No.”
I sat back.
The pattern had begun much earlier than the current crisis.
Daniel had learned that a sufficiently urgent business problem could turn into Robert’s money.
Melissa had learned that Robert measured her requests differently.
Neither fact excused what had happened.
Both facts made it uglier.
A nurse entered to draw more blood.
Robert watched the needle.
“I hate that.”
“Don’t look.”
“I’m seventy-one.”
“You can still not look.”
He looked anyway.
After the nurse left, Robert said, “Call Melissa.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
“Good standard.”
He gave me her number even though I already had it.
She answered on the second ring.
“Michael?”
“Hi, Melissa.”
“Where is Dad?”
“He’s at the hospital.”
A beat of silence.
“What happened?”
“Chest pressure.”
“Oh God.”
The fear in her voice sounded real.
I watched Robert.
He heard it too.
“Is he okay?”
“Stable.”
“Can I talk to him?”
Robert nodded.
I put the call on speaker and set the phone near him.
“Dad?”
“I’m here.”
Melissa started crying immediately.
Robert’s mouth tightened.
“Don’t do that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing and tell me what you did.”
The crying stopped as abruptly as it had started.
“Dad.”
“DBH Property Group.”
Silence.
“Do not make me ask twice.”
Melissa breathed in.
“Daniel said it was temporary.”
Robert closed his eyes.
“What was temporary?”
“The company.”
“The deed?”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
“Did you know my house was being transferred?”
“Yes.”
Robert did not move.
“Did you know Daniel was using it as collateral?”
“No.”
Her answer came immediately.
I looked at Robert.
He looked at me.
“Then why create the company?”
“Because Daniel said you wanted the house moved out of the trust.”
“I never said that.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because Franklin called me.”
Robert frowned.
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
Franklin had been working faster than he told us.
Melissa continued.
“He asked whether I had helped prepare anything.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“The truth.”
“Try it with me.”
Her voice hardened slightly.
“I formed the LLC because Daniel asked me to.”
“Why you?”
“Because he said using his name alone would look like self-dealing.”
Robert laughed once in disbelief.
“He was concerned about appearances.”
“I didn’t know he was borrowing against it.”
“You heard yourself in my hospital hallway telling him to get me to sign the rest.”
Melissa went completely silent.
Robert’s face changed.
He had finally placed the accusation where it belonged.
“What rest, Melissa?”
She whispered something I could not hear.
“What?”
“The beneficiary forms.”
Robert’s hand tightened on the blanket.
“For whom?”
“Dad.”
“For whom?”
Melissa began crying again.
This time Robert did not tell her to stop.
“For Daniel and me.”
The room seemed to become very still.
Robert swallowed.
“Emily?”
Melissa said nothing.
“Was Emily being removed?”
“No.”
Robert stared at the phone.
“Then what changed?”
Melissa took a ragged breath.
“The percentages.”
Robert’s voice became quiet.
“What percentages?”
“You had everything divided equally.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel said that wasn’t fair.”
Robert closed his eyes.
“Why?”
“Because Emily doesn’t need the money.”
I felt my stomach turn.
Melissa kept talking, perhaps because stopping would have been worse.
“She and Michael are fine.”
“Daniel has business debt.”
“I have the kids.”
“He said you had agreed to adjust things.”
Robert opened his eyes.
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
The words echoed his own from earlier.
He heard it.
So did I.
For a few seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Melissa said, “Dad, I didn’t know about the withdrawals.”
May you like
Robert’s face hardened again.
“But you knew you were helping Daniel get me to sign documents I had not discussed with my lawyer.”
