Chương 14
Meredith followed her eyes.
“You’re not getting on that plane.”
Elaine gave her a cold look.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“No.”
Meredith stepped closer.
“But whoever sent those documents knew enough to reopen something from 1998, knew you moved money, knew your flight, and knew where you were sitting in this terminal.”
Claire nodded.
“That is why I contacted Meredith.”
Elaine turned on her.
“You dragged my daughter into this.”
“I tried dragging you into reality first.”
“Enough.”
Meredith’s voice cut between them.
Both women stopped.
For the first time in her life, Meredith saw her mother obey her without argument.
She looked at Claire.
“No more anonymous messages.”
Claire nodded.
“Fine.”
“No more photographs without explaining who took them.”
“I took it.”
Meredith stared.
“You were here the whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Why not walk over?”
“Because Elaine told me yesterday never to contact her again.”
Elaine’s jaw tightened.
Claire continued.
“I came anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because she moved money from accounts Robert can see, and I knew the second he noticed, everything would accelerate.”
Meredith felt a cold heaviness settle in her stomach.
“Accelerate toward what?”
Claire looked around the terminal.
Then she lowered her voice.
“Toward finding the original Providence records before whoever sent that package does.”
Elaine went pale again.
Meredith caught it.
“There are originals?”
Claire nodded.
“My father said there were.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“But someone does.”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
His face changed.
Meredith turned.
“What?”
“Marcus.”
“What did he find?”
Daniel looked at Elaine.
“Your mother’s attorney’s office was broken into forty minutes ago.”
Elaine gripped the handle of her suitcase.
Claire whispered something under her breath.
Meredith felt the last pieces of exhaustion burn away.
“What was taken?”
Daniel read the message.
“One locked file box.”
Elaine shut her eyes.
Meredith stared at her.
“The Providence records?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Elaine opened her eyes.
“My copies were somewhere else.”
Meredith waited.
Elaine’s voice dropped.
“The box held the agreement I signed with Robert before I moved the money.”
“What agreement?”
“A settlement proposal.”
“With him?”
“Yes.”
“Did he sign it?”
“No.”
“Then why would anyone steal it?”
Elaine looked at Claire.
Claire’s expression hardened.
“Because attached to it was an inventory of every Providence document Elaine could identify.”
Meredith felt Daniel move closer.
“An inventory with locations?”
Claire nodded slowly.
“Some.”
The Lisbon gate agent announced final boarding.
Elaine stared at the open jet bridge.
For one second, Meredith thought she might still go.
Then Elaine bent, lifted her suitcase upright, and pulled the handle toward herself.
She looked at the gate.
Then at Meredith.
Then at Claire.
Finally she stepped away from the boarding line.
“I’m not leaving.”
Meredith exhaled.
It did not feel like relief.
It felt like the beginning of something worse.
Daniel slid his phone back into his pocket.
“We need somewhere private.”
Elaine nodded.
Claire did too.
Meredith looked at both women.
“No lawyers making decisions for us.”
Claire started to object.
“No disappearing.”
Elaine tightened her mouth.
“No anonymous messages.”
Claire looked away.
“And nobody contacts Dad until we know whether he’s involved in what happened at the attorney’s office.”
Elaine stared at her daughter.
Meredith expected resistance.
Instead her mother gave one slow nod.
“All right.”
They walked away from the gate together, four exhausted people carrying versions of the same twenty-eight-year-old story, none of them yet certain which version had been built to protect whom.
Behind them, the final passengers boarded the Lisbon flight.
Ahead of them, Daniel’s phone began ringing again.
This time Meredith looked at the screen before he answered.
Robert Hale.
She stopped walking.
“Put it on speaker.”
Daniel answered and tapped the speaker icon.
Robert’s voice came through immediately.
“Where are you?”
Meredith looked at Elaine.
Her mother did not move.
“Why are you calling Daniel?” Meredith asked.
A beat of silence followed.
Then Robert said, “Because you weren’t answering.”
“I never got a call.”
“I called twice.”
Meredith checked her screen.
Nothing.
Daniel’s expression hardened.
Robert continued.
“Something happened.”
“What?”
“My lawyer’s office called.”
Elaine closed her eyes.
“They said Lydia Chen’s office was broken into.”
Claire looked toward the windows.
Meredith watched her father’s voice become the center of the terminal.
“You already know,” she said.
Robert stopped.
“How?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“Did you know Mom had an inventory of the Providence records?”
This silence was longer.
Elaine gripped the suitcase handle.
Robert finally said, “Meredith, where are you?”
“Answer the question.”
“No.”
“No, you didn’t know, or no, you won’t answer?”
“I am done being interrogated by my own daughter.”
Meredith felt something inside her become unexpectedly calm.
“Then we can hang up.”
“Wait.”
Robert’s voice sharpened.
“Is your mother with you?”
Elaine looked at Meredith and shook her head once.
Not denial.
Warning.
Meredith understood.
“I’m not answering that.”
Robert swore quietly.
“She called you, didn’t she?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know about Providence?”
“I asked you.”
“After someone fed you information.”
Meredith looked at Claire.
Claire’s jaw tightened.
“Who are you afraid gave it to me?”
Robert breathed through his nose.
When he spoke again, the anger had thinned.
“Claire Rourke.”
Claire leaned toward Daniel’s phone.
“Hello, Robert.”
Robert stopped breathing for a second.
Meredith heard it.
Then came a whisper.
“Jesus Christ.”
Claire’s expression did not change.
“No, just me.”
“Where is Elaine?”
“You don’t get to ask me that.”
“Claire, this has nothing to do with you.”
“My father lost everything because of you.”
“Your father signed a settlement.”
“After you forged tenant commitments and let your wife take the exposure.”
Elaine looked away.
Robert’s voice rose.
“That is not what happened.”
“Then say what happened.”
“I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“You owed Martin one.”
“He was paid.”
Claire laughed.
The sound contained twenty years of disgust.
“And there it is.”
Meredith stepped closer to the phone.
“Dad, did you authorize the fake commitments?”
“No.”
May you like
Elaine looked at her.
Meredith saw the answer in her face before Robert continued.
