Chương 13
“You own millions of dollars and can’t make grilled cheese?”
Arianne nearly choked on her water.
Baldric pointed at her.
“You told him?”
“He heard us talking.”
Gideon looked offended.
“I’m seven, not deaf.”
Baldric scraped the burnt crust with a butter knife.
“Money does not improve bread.”
“It can buy a toaster.”
“I have a toaster.”
“Then why didn’t you use it?”
Baldric looked at Arianne.
She was laughing again.
He decided losing the argument was worth it.
The next morning, Baldric put on a charcoal suit he had not worn in almost a year.
Arianne watched from the kitchen doorway while he fought with the tie.
“You’re bad at that.”
“I know.”
“Come here.”
She fixed it.
Her bruises looked darker in daylight.
He tried not to stare.
“Are you going?”
“To the meeting.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
“Why are you?”
Baldric considered the question.
“Because Roger’s businesses employ people who didn’t put you on that floor.”
Arianne’s hands stopped at his collar.
“And because?”
He looked at her.
“Because I need to make sure anger doesn’t do my job for me.”
She stepped back.
“Better.”
“That sounds like approval.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Northline’s headquarters occupied four floors of an office building that looked deliberately unremarkable from the street.
Reporters stood near the entrance.
Daniel met Baldric in the private garage.
“You can still attend remotely.”
“No.”
Daniel studied him.
“You ready?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Baldric looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’d be worried if you were excited.”
They took the elevator upstairs.
Roger Vance was already in the boardroom.
He stood when Baldric entered.
For several seconds he simply stared.
Roger looked older than he had two days earlier.
His tie was crooked.
There were gray shadows beneath his eyes.
“You.”
Baldric closed the door behind him.
“Sit down, Roger.”
Roger did not.
“You own Northline.”
“I control it.”
“You sat at my table for six years.”
“Yes.”
“You listened while I talked about financing.”
“Yes.”
“You knew everything.”
“No.”
Roger laughed sharply.
“Don’t insult me.”
“I knew what your companies disclosed to ours.”
“You were waiting for this.”
Baldric felt the old impulse rise.
The satisfying answer would have been yes.
It would also have been a lie.
“No.”
Roger stared at him.
“I was waiting for your auditors to fix what they promised to fix.”
Daniel placed folders on the table.
Roger looked at them.
“Then your daughter calls you, and suddenly every contract gets suspended.”
“Compliance protections were activated after outstanding violations were reviewed.”
“You expect me to believe the timing is coincidence?”
“No.”
Baldric sat.
“I expect you to understand that I stopped extending discretion I was never obligated to extend.”
Roger remained standing.
“You’re destroying us because my son’s marriage failed.”
“No.”
Baldric looked at him.
“Your son’s marriage is not why twenty million dollars moved through related entities.”
Roger’s face changed.
Daniel opened one folder.
“We are not making criminal allegations.”
Roger sank into the chair.
Baldric continued.
“We are identifying financial representations that require verification before Northline keeps extending support.”
Roger rubbed both hands over his face.
For the first time, he did not look wealthy.
He looked frightened.
“I knew about Marwick.”
“We know.”
“I didn’t know what Derek was doing with all of it.”
Baldric said nothing.
Roger stared at the table.
“He told me Arianne was unstable.”
Baldric’s hands tightened.
Roger noticed.
“He said he was protecting Gideon.”
“From what?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“Did you ask?”
Roger looked at him.
That was answer enough.
Baldric leaned back.
“My daughter was easier for you to believe bad things about than your son.”
Roger’s mouth tightened.
“You think that makes me responsible for what happened?”
“I think that’s a question you get to live with.”
Daniel cleared his throat gently.
Baldric let the silence end.
He opened the folder in front of him.
“Northline will maintain essential freight services for thirty days under controlled payment terms.”
Roger blinked.
“You’re not terminating?”
“Not today.”
“Why?”
“Because your employees have mortgages.”
Roger looked suspicious.
“What do you want?”
“Independent forensic accounting.”
Roger’s jaw tightened.
“Full access to the books relevant to our contracts.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then termination procedures continue.”
Roger looked down.
Baldric added, “No payments to related entities without disclosure.”
Roger gave a bitter laugh.
“You’re putting me on a leash.”
“No.”
Baldric closed the folder.
“I’m removing the one you thought you didn’t have.”
The meeting lasted three hours.
By the end, Roger agreed.
Not graciously.
Not gratefully.
He agreed because the alternatives were worse.
As Baldric left, Roger called after him.
“Did Arianne know?”
Baldric turned.
“About Northline?”
“Yes.”
“Not until yesterday.”
Roger stared at him.
“Why hide it from her?”
Baldric thought about all the clever reasons he had once given himself.
“Fear.”
Roger frowned.
“Of what?”
“That money would decide who loved her.”
He looked at the boardroom table.
“I protected the wrong thing.”
Six weeks later, Derek was charged with multiple offenses related to the assault and the administration of medication without Arianne’s informed consent.
The financial investigation moved more slowly.
That part frustrated everyone.
Records had to be reviewed.
Payments had to be traced.
Lawyers argued about access.
The clinic denied wrongdoing, then produced contracts that raised more questions than they answered.
Bertha stopped calling Arianne unstable after investigators discovered she had approved several payments to entities connected with Derek.
She did not apologize.
Roger did.
Once.
Arianne listened and said, “I’m not ready.”
Roger nodded.
For once, he did not ask her to become ready faster.
Derek’s supervised visits with Gideon began months later.
Arianne hated them.
Gideon did not.
At least not always.
That contradiction hurt her more than anger would have.
Baldric learned not to comment.
He also learned that protecting his daughter sometimes meant picking Gideon up from therapy while she sat alone in her car for twenty minutes afterward.
Northline survived the Vance mess.
So did most of Vance Industrial.
Roger sold two developments, replaced his chief financial officer, and lost control of one subsidiary to creditors.
He never recovered the easy confidence Baldric had disliked.
Baldric found he disliked Roger less once there was less to enjoy hating.
Arianne rented the apartment near Gideon’s school after all.
Baldric offered to buy the building.
She stared at him until he withdrew the offer.
He did, however, replace her ancient washing machine.
She allowed that.
Almost a year after the night in the bathroom, Baldric arrived at Arianne’s apartment carrying a toolbox.
Gideon opened the door.
“Mom says the sink leaks.”
“It does.”
“Can money fix it?”
“Money can buy the parts.”
“Can you fix it?”
Baldric looked offended.
“Obviously.”
Arianne called from the kitchen.
“Last time you said that, my disposal started smoking.”
“That was unrelated.”
“It happened while you were holding a wrench.”
“Circumstantial evidence.”
Gideon laughed.
Baldric knelt under the sink.
Arianne leaned against the counter with a mug in both hands.
The bruises were long gone.
Other things were not.
Some nights she still called him when she could not sleep.
Sometimes she said nothing important.
Sometimes they discussed groceries.
Sometimes she cried.
Baldric had finally learned not to repair silence.
Arianne watched him tighten a fitting.
“You know, you could hire somebody.”
“I know.”
“You own a logistics empire.”
“That sounds vulgar when you say it.”
“You own a logistics empire and drive a truck with power-steering fluid stains.”
“Historic stains.”
She smiled.
Gideon crouched beside him.
“Can I help?”
Baldric handed him a flashlight.
“Point this where I’m working.”
Gideon immediately pointed it into Baldric’s eyes.
“Not there.”
Arianne laughed.
Baldric complained.
The faucet dripped once.
Then stopped.
Nobody in the room called it justice.
May you like
Nobody called it healing.
It was only a Saturday morning in a small apartment, with a repaired sink, burnt coffee, a child holding a flashlight badly, and Arianne standing in her own kitchen with the front door unlocked because she had chosen to leave it that way.
