Chương 13
Cross saying Thomas had done the same thing.
Claire barefoot in the hallway.
Last night, when the person closest to the problem had brought him a warning, he had removed her because the warning threatened the story he preferred.
He had called that leadership.
“I agree,” he said.
Harold looked surprised.
Priya did not.
Claire’s shoulders lowered slightly.
The vote passed.
Adrian remained CEO.
With restrictions.
The news reached the company before he returned to the office.
Not the details.
Only that Nathaniel Cross had been suspended and the board had initiated an investigation into an unauthorized transfer.
Communications prepared a statement so bloodless it sounded like no humans had been involved.
Adrian approved it.
Then rejected the sentence stating senior leadership retained the board’s full confidence.
“Why?” the communications director asked.
“Because it isn’t true.”
She looked uncomfortable.
“Markets—”
“We’re private.”
“Employees.”
“Will know we’re lying.”
Claire stood near the wall.
She said nothing.
The communications director looked at her.
Then at Adrian.
“Should we say the board has confidence in current operations?”
Adrian considered.
“Yes.”
It was smaller.
More accurate.
He approved it.
By two-thirty, he had eaten half a turkey sandwich and forgotten where he put the other half.
At three, Eleanor’s lawyer arrived.
At three-fifteen, the bank confirmed twenty-six million remained frozen.
At three-forty, investigators traced another eight million to an account Cross controlled indirectly.
By four, the remaining eight had been used to satisfy a margin call and might be difficult to recover.
None of this felt like victory.
Claire spent most of the afternoon in the conference room with counsel.
Adrian returned to his office alone.
The CEO nameplate was still crooked.
He picked it up.
For a moment he considered putting it back in its usual position.
Instead he set it in a drawer.
Then he saw the folder.
Northstar.
51%.
He sat.
His phone vibrated with a message from his mother.
Are you angry with me?
He stared at it.
His first response was immediate.
Of course not.
He deleted it.
That was a lie.
He was angry.
At her.
At Cross.
At his father.
At himself.
He typed again.
Yes. But not in the way you mean. I’ll call tonight.
He sent it.
Eleanor replied with a thumbs-up.
He laughed despite himself.
At five-ten, Claire appeared in the doorway.
She knocked.
He looked at her.
“You’ve never knocked.”
“You fired me.”
“Right.”
She remained at the threshold.
“May I come in?”
Adrian leaned back.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes.”
She entered.
Her hair was looser now. Two strands had escaped near her neck. She carried her shoes in one hand.
Adrian looked down.
“Still?”
“Still.”
“What did counsel say about Maribel?”
“She’ll be interviewed formally tomorrow. The payment is a problem.”
“She took five hundred dollars.”
“She also followed instructions that helped enable the remote session.”
“She didn’t know.”
“I believe her.”
“So do I.”
Claire sat.
Adrian looked at the black folder between them.
“What happens to Cross?”
“That depends on things neither of us controls.”
“I hate that answer.”
“I know.”
“Will my mother be all right?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hate that one more.”
“I know.”
He rubbed his face.
Claire noticed the framed photograph near the window.
“You should probably move that.”
“My father?”
“No. The frame. It’s half off the credenza.”
Adrian looked.
She was right.
He moved it two inches.
For a few seconds he looked at the photograph.
“Do you think Cross was telling the truth about Sterling?”
“Yes.”
Adrian turned.
“You believe him?”
“About that, yes.”
“Why?”
“Your reaction.”
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves you recognized the timing.”
He sat back.
“I approved a guarantee I shouldn’t have.”
“You were young.”
“I was thirty-three.”
“Ancient.”
He gave her a look.
Claire tucked one foot beneath the chair.
“My father covered it.”
“Apparently.”
“And never told me.”
“Would you have accepted the help?”
“No.”
“That may be why.”
Adrian stared toward the skyline.
For years he had carried Sterling as evidence that he survived his first major mistake through discipline and negotiation.
Now part of the survival belonged to money moved quietly by his father.
The achievement did not disappear.
It changed shape.
He disliked the new shape.
“Cross used the same justification,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Protect the company. Fix it later.”
“Yes.”
“My father did exactly what Cross did.”
“No.”
Adrian looked at her.
Claire shook her head.
“Your father moved his own family’s money to cover a company obligation he believed endangered the business. If Cross is telling the truth, Thomas still should have disclosed it. But Cross moved someone else’s estate money to cover his personal investment losses.”
“He told himself it was temporary.”
“Probably.”
“He told himself Thomas would understand.”
“Probably.”
Adrian looked down.
“That’s what scares me.”
Claire waited.
“I understood him for about three seconds.”
She did not tell him he was different.
He appreciated that.
“Enough to see how he got there?”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t the same as going there.”
“No.”
He glanced at her.
“You always answer like opposing counsel?”
“Only when you’re being dramatic.”
“I’m having a difficult day.”
“You threw a nameplate at yourself this morning.”
“You threw it.”
“Technically.”
He smiled.
The smile faded.
“Are you coming back?”
Claire’s face became still.
“As what?”
Adrian had not thought beyond the question.
“My executive assistant.”
She stared at him.
He winced.
“That sounded bad.”
“It sounded incredible.”
“I meant—”
“I know what you meant.”
“Do you?”
“You want yesterday back.”
He stopped.
Claire stood.
“I don’t.”
Adrian looked up at her.
“That’s fair.”
“I didn’t spend three years consolidating voting rights so I could go back to fixing your lunch schedule.”
“You never fixed my lunch schedule.”
“I fixed it constantly.”
“I skipped lunch.”
“Exactly.”
He leaned back.
“What do you want?”
Claire looked genuinely uncertain.
It was the first time all day he had seen her without an answer ready.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s inconvenient.”
May you like
“Yes.”
“You could take the CEO job.”
