Chương 14
Megan read it over my shoulder.
“That sounds normal and healthy.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m coping.”
Another message arrived.
You do not know what Richard did.
I sat straighter.
Megan’s humor vanished.
Then another.
And you do not know what Elijah asked him to hide.
My pulse accelerated.
Megan grabbed my wrist.
“Do not call her.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were thinking about it.”
“Yes.”
“That counts.”
I looked at the messages.
A third arrived.
Ask Elijah about Phoenix.
I frowned.
“Phoenix?”
Megan looked at me.
“Does that mean anything?”
“No.”
Then it did.
Not immediately.
The memory arrived through a hotel receipt.
Two years earlier, Elijah had told me a board dinner in Phoenix had been canceled because one of the directors got sick.
He had still stayed overnight.
I had not cared at the time.
Why would I?
He traveled constantly.
But when our accountant prepared our personal return the following spring, there had been a private aviation expense that Elijah said belonged to the company and would be corrected.
Phoenix.
I opened our shared calendar archive.
Search.
Phoenix.
One entry appeared.
Mercer Board Strategy Dinner.
Canceled.
November seventeenth.
The same month Elijah had visited my mother.
My skin went cold.
Megan read my face.
“What?”
“He was in Phoenix.”
“So?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then stop.”
“I am stopping.”
I took a screenshot of Laura’s messages.
Then I forwarded them to my private email.
I did not reply.
Five minutes later, Margaret called.
Her voice was clipped.
“Laura contacted you.”
“How do you know?”
“She told Elijah.”
“That was fast.”
“She is claiming she reached out because she fears you are being manipulated.”
“By whom?”
“Me.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Margaret did not.
“She also says Richard has been falsifying records.”
“Convenient timing.”
“Yes.”
“She told me to ask Elijah about Phoenix.”
Margaret went silent.
“Does that mean something to you?”
“Yes.”
The word came too quickly.
I stood.
“What?”
“Not over the phone.”
“Margaret.”
“Alex.”
“You are not doing this to me again.”
Her breathing slowed.
“Two years ago, Mercer Hospitality considered acquiring a distressed resort portfolio based in Arizona.”
“Okay.”
“Richard led the financial review.”
“And Elijah?”
“Approved preliminary negotiations.”
“What happened?”
“The deal collapsed.”
“Why?”
“Because several assets were materially overvalued.”
“That happens.”
“Yes.”
Her voice tightened.
“But before we withdrew, a private entity purchased debt connected to two of the resorts.”
I gripped the back of a chair.
“What private entity?”
“LM Strategic Consulting.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was again.
Leonard Mason.
Laura.
Elijah.
Richard.
All of them circling the same company long before I knew anything was wrong.
“Did Elijah know?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I refuse to pretend certainty where I don’t have it.”
“Was he in Phoenix?”
“Yes.”
“With Richard?”
“Yes.”
“With Leonard?”
“We are trying to establish that.”
“And Laura?”
“No record of her attending any company meetings.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Margaret went quiet.
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“There is a hotel reservation.”
“For Laura?”
“Yes.”
“Same hotel?”
“Yes.”
“When did you find that?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
I sat down slowly.
Megan watched me from across the kitchen.
“Did Elijah book it?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Richard’s assistant.”
My mouth went dry.
“That could mean nothing.”
“Yes.”
“It could mean she was there for Mason.”
“Yes.”
“It could mean she met Elijah.”
“Yes.”
“It could mean anything.”
“Yes.”
I pressed my fingers to my eyes.
“God.”
“Alex, do not confront Elijah about Phoenix yet.”
“Why?”
“Because outside counsel has not finished establishing who was present or why.”
“He’s my husband.”
“And right now he is also the chairman of a company under investigation.”
I hated the sentence.
I hated that it was true.
“What happens to him?”
“The board is meeting tonight.”
“To remove him?”
“To consider placing him on administrative leave during the review.”
I stood again.
“He’s going to think you’re behind it.”
“He already does.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
I believed her.
Maybe because she sounded tired instead of powerful.
“Will he lose the company?”
“I don’t know.”
“Margaret.”
“I genuinely don’t know.”
Her voice softened.
“And neither does he.”
That landed harder than I expected.
Elijah had built his identity around never appearing uncertain.
Even at his father’s hospital bed, he had answered emails.
Even at our wedding dinner, he had taken a call from a lender.
The company was not simply his work.
It was the structure he had used to avoid almost everything else.
“Does he have anyone with him?”
I asked.
Margaret hesitated.
“Outside counsel.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“I know.”
I looked at Mom’s letter.
For one ugly second, I wanted him alone.
I wanted him frightened.
I wanted him to feel abandoned the way I had beneath those chandeliers.
Then shame followed.
Not because the feeling was unnatural.
Because I knew exactly where it could lead if I fed it.
“Tell him I’m not speaking to him today.”
“I already did.”
“But tell him this too.”
“What?”
“If he wants any chance of talking to me later, he needs to answer every question the auditors ask.”
Margaret was silent.
“Even if the answers hurt him.”
“Yes.”
“Even if they hurt you.”
I looked at the bruise reflected faintly in the kitchen window.
“Yes.”
“Even if they end your marriage.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Yes.”
Margaret exhaled.
“All right.”
I ended the call.
Megan was still watching me.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
I sat beside her.
For the next hour, we did not talk about Elijah.
We called relatives.
We chose photographs for the memorial.
We argued about whether Mom would have hated the picture Megan liked because it showed her wearing a ridiculous red hat.
We ordered barbecue.
We found the cast-iron pan.
At six-thirteen, while Megan was on the phone with Aunt Patricia explicitly forbidding her from singing, my phone vibrated.
A message from Elijah.
The board placed me on leave.
I stared at it.
May you like
Another followed.
I told counsel everything I know about Phoenix.
