Chương 2
The lock clicked.
Baldric opened the door.
His daughter was lying between the bathtub and the vanity with one cheek pressed against the tile.
Her hair was wet on one side.
Dark bruises circled both wrists.
Another bruise was beginning to rise beneath her chin.
The faucet was running full force into the sink.
For a second, Baldric could not move.
Then twenty-five years disappeared, and Arianne was five again, feverish and asleep against his chest after her mother died, small enough that he had been terrified he might hold her too tightly.
“Arianne.”
He dropped beside her.
Her eyelids did not move.
He touched two fingers to the side of her neck and found a pulse.
Too fast.
Her breathing was shallow.
He reached to lift her.
“Don’t.”
Derek was in the doorway.
“The ambulance is coming.”
Baldric looked over his shoulder.
“You called one?”
Derek hesitated.
The hesitation answered for him.
Bertha stepped forward.
“We were monitoring her.”
“With what?”
“She took medication.”
“What medication?”
Bertha’s jaw shifted.
“I don’t know the name.”
Baldric slid one arm beneath Arianne’s shoulders and another under her knees.
She weighed almost nothing.
That frightened him in a way the bruises did not.
He stood carefully.
Bertha blocked the doorway again.
“You cannot take her out of this house.”
Baldric stared at her.
Behind Bertha, Derek had gone pale.
The sirens were louder now.
Bertha lowered her voice.
“You do not understand what happens if this becomes public.”
Baldric adjusted Arianne against his chest.
Her head rolled toward his shoulder.
“You’re right.”
He stepped forward.
“I don’t.”
Bertha did not move.
Baldric’s voice dropped.
“Watch me.”
She moved.
He carried Arianne downstairs as red and blue light began sliding across the foyer walls.
Two sheriff’s deputies entered first, followed by paramedics.
Questions came quickly.
Who found her?
What had she taken?
Was she conscious at any point?
Did she fall?
Was anyone else injured?
Derek answered too much.
Bertha answered too carefully.
Baldric answered only what he knew.
One deputy, a woman with tired eyes and a braid tucked into the collar of her uniform, noticed the bruising around Arianne’s wrists before anyone pointed it out.
She looked at Derek’s towel-wrapped hand.
“What happened there?”
“She scratched me.”
“Then why is your hand bleeding?”
Derek looked down as though he had forgotten it was.
“I hit the counter.”
Bertha interrupted.
“My son is the victim of an unstable woman having a psychiatric crisis.”
The deputy turned to her.
“Ma’am, I need you to stop answering for him.”
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The paramedics transferred Arianne to a stretcher.
As they rolled her toward the door, Baldric saw her fingers twitch.
He followed.
Derek came after him.
“You’re making this worse.”
Baldric turned.
“For who?”
Derek stopped.
That was all.
No dramatic confession.
No threat.
Just a man standing barefoot in his expensive foyer while strangers photographed the bruises on his wife.
Outside, Bertha watched the ambulance doors close.
“You always resented us.”
Baldric almost laughed.
The accusation was so absurd that for half a second he thought he had misunderstood her.
Instead, he wiped Arianne’s damp hair from his wrist.
“I barely think about you.”
Bertha’s expression hardened.
“You think because you fixed engines your entire life you understand men like my son?”
“I understand broken things.”
She smiled without warmth.
“There it is.”
Baldric looked past her toward the mansion.
One upstairs light had come on in Gideon’s room.
A small face appeared behind the glass, then vanished.
Baldric felt something inside him settle into a colder shape.
He took out his phone.
His attorney answered on the fifth ring.
“Baldric?”
“Daniel.”
A rustle of sheets came through the speaker.
“What happened?”
“I need you awake.”
Daniel went silent.
Baldric had known him for nineteen years.
The man could hear trouble in four words.
“I’m awake.”
“Activate the emergency provisions in the Northline holdings.”
Another silence followed.
“All Northline holdings?”
“All entities with exposure to Vance Industrial, Vance Development, and any subsidiary tied to Roger Vance.”
Daniel exhaled slowly.
“Baldric, that will trigger reviews across half a dozen contracts.”
“I know.”
“It may freeze their credit support.”
“I know.”
“And once notices go out, we cannot pretend we didn’t send them.”
Baldric watched Derek arguing with the deputy near the front steps.
“I know.”
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Is Arianne alive?”
“Yes.”
“Then go with her.”
Baldric closed his eyes for one second.
“Get Caroline and Minh on the call.”
“No retaliation.”
Daniel paused.
“What?”
“Nothing outside the agreements.”
Baldric looked at Bertha.
“No games.”
“I understand.”
“Every action justified on paper.”
“It already is, if the triggers are valid.”
“They’re valid.”
“How do you know?”
Baldric watched the deputy place Derek’s phone into an evidence bag after what appeared to be a brief argument over consent.
“Because Roger’s companies missed two compliance disclosures last quarter, and he asked us to waive them.”
Daniel was quiet again.
“You never approved the waiver.”
“No.”
“You were waiting.”
Baldric looked at the ambulance.
“No.”
His throat tightened.
“I was hoping I’d never need it.”
Bertha had moved close enough to hear part of the conversation.
She folded her arms.
“You really are pathetic.”
Baldric put the phone away.
She glanced at his old pickup.
“What are you going to do, cancel their oil changes?”
Derek laughed once from the steps.
It was nervous laughter, but laughter all the same.
Baldric looked at neither of them.
He climbed into the ambulance beside his daughter.
At the hospital, a nurse cut away the sleeve of Arianne’s blouse and exposed more bruising along her upper arm.
Baldric sat in a plastic chair beneath a television showing a late-night home renovation program with the sound off.
A couple across the waiting area argued quietly about a vending machine.
Someone’s phone kept buzzing on a table.
Life continued with insulting normality.
At 4:17, Arianne opened her eyes.
May you like
She looked at Baldric, then at the hospital ceiling.
Her mouth trembled.
