Chương 9
“My company.”
“Did Mom sign anything?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Financial statements.”
“Accurate ones?”
Robert inhaled.
That was enough.
Meredith closed her eyes.
“Oh my God.”
“Do not jump to conclusions.”
“What was false?”
“Nothing was false.”
“Then why did you pause?”
“Because you’re asking complicated questions as though the answers fit into one sentence.”
“Try two.”
Daniel almost smiled despite himself.
Robert’s voice flattened.
“One of the lenders alleged we overstated committed tenant revenue.”
“Did you?”
“We had letters of intent.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
Robert said nothing.
Meredith felt cold.
“Did Mom prepare the paperwork?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know?”
“I don’t know what she knew.”
“Was she blamed?”
“She was named.”
“In the lawsuit?”
“Yes.”
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened?”
“We settled.”
“Whose money?”
“Company funds.”
“Did she pay personally?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Meredith stared at Daniel.
He was no longer taking notes.
“Then why would she say your money was hers?”
Robert answered too quickly.
“She didn’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know my wife.”
Meredith almost said, Do you?
The cruelty of it stopped her.
Barely.
Instead she asked, “What happened to Charles Vale and Martin Rourke?”
“Vale died years ago.”
“And Rourke?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were business partners.”
“Not after the project.”
“Why?”
Robert’s breathing grew louder.
“Because someone had to be blamed when it collapsed.”
“Who got blamed?”
He did not answer.
Meredith whispered, “Mom.”
“She agreed to handle the settlement.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No one blamed her.”
“You just said someone had to be blamed.”
Robert’s voice sharpened.
“It was complicated.”
Meredith stood very still.
Daniel reached toward her mug before her sleeve knocked it over.
She barely noticed.
“What did she lose?”
“Nothing.”
“Dad.”
“She lost her position.”
“You fired her?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Did she want to leave?”
“She needed to.”
“Why?”
“The lenders would not continue negotiating if she stayed involved.”
Meredith shut her eyes.
The imagined smell of furniture polish returned.
Her mother’s voice from beneath the dining table.
Providence was finished.
Nothing is finished if there are records.
“What records?”
Robert went quiet.
Meredith felt a prickling along her arms.
“What records were they talking about?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
“No.”
“Who came to Grandma’s house after the lawsuit?”
“What?”
“When I was little.”
“I have no idea.”
“A man met Mom there.”
“Meredith, you were a child.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re trying to build a memory around a text from a stranger.”
It was reasonable.
That irritated her because it was reasonable.
Daniel looked at her and gave a small nod.
Slow down.
Meredith sat.
“What happened after the settlement?”
“Life happened.”
“That sounds convenient.”
“We moved on.”
“Did Mom?”
Robert laughed bitterly.
“Your mother never moved on from anything in her life.”
The sentence carried more exhaustion than malice.
Meredith rubbed her eyes.
“Did she ever accuse you of taking money that belonged to her?”
“No.”
“Did she ever say she was entitled to part of the business?”
“She already owned part.”
“How much?”
“Twenty percent at the time.”
“And now?”
“Nothing.”
Meredith froze.
“What happened to her share?”
Robert did not answer.
“Dad.”
“She sold it.”
“To whom?”
“Me.”
“For what?”
“Cash and assumption of liabilities.”
“When?”
“After Providence.”
“How much cash?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember.”
“About two hundred thousand.”
Meredith stared at the wall.
Even in 1998, twenty percent of Robert’s growing company could have been worth far more.
“Was that fair?”
“It was legal.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“Do not do this.”
“Do what?”
“Decide I cheated her because she emptied an account tonight.”
“You keep answering different questions.”
Robert’s voice rose.
“And you keep acting as though you understand a marriage you have spent years avoiding.”
The words hit with ugly precision.
Meredith looked down.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
She shook her head at him.
“No one is asking me to understand your marriage.”
“You are asking me to explain it.”
“I am asking whether Mom believed you owed her money.”
Robert breathed heavily for a moment.
Then his voice lowered.
“Yes.”
Meredith felt the air leave her chest.
“How much?”
“She never gave a number.”
“Did she mention Providence?”
“Sometimes.”
“What did she say?”
“That I built everything afterward using relationships she helped create.”
“Was that true?”
“Partly.”
“Did she say you pushed her out to save yourself?”
Robert did not answer.
Meredith’s stomach tightened.
“Dad.”
“She signed the documents.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“She knew what she was signing.”
“That still wasn’t my question.”
Robert’s voice broke into anger.
“I had two children and payroll and creditors and investors demanding blood.”
Meredith flinched.
Daniel watched her carefully.
Robert continued.
“I made a decision that kept the company alive.”
“At her expense?”
“At everyone’s expense.”
“But mostly hers?”
Silence.
Meredith looked at the clock above the stove.
3:21.
The second hand continued moving with insulting normality.
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because you were children.”
“I’m thirty-two.”
“You never asked.”
She laughed, short and disbelieving.
“I didn’t know there was something to ask.”
Robert said nothing.
Meredith’s phone buzzed against her ear.
A new text had arrived.
She lowered the phone and looked at the screen.
Same international number.
You are asking the wrong question.
Daniel leaned closer.
Meredith opened the message.
Ask him whose signature authorized the final transfer from Hale Development to Rourke Holdings on October 16, 1998.
Her mouth went dry.
Daniel read it over her shoulder.
“Specific.”
“Too specific.”
Robert was still speaking faintly through the phone.
“Meredith?”
She lifted it back to her ear.
“Whose signature authorized the final transfer to Rourke Holdings on October sixteenth, 1998?”
The line went completely silent.
Not even breathing this time.
Meredith stood.
“Dad?”
When Robert finally spoke, his voice sounded older.
“Where are you getting this?”
“Answer.”
“I need to know who contacted you.”
“Answer me first.”
A long pause followed.
Then Robert said, “Your mother’s.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
May you like
Meredith sat back down.
“How much?”
