Chương 13
His eyes moved over the message.
Then he looked toward Madison.
“Who is at your office right now?”
She stared at him.
“No one.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Who has keys?”
“I do.”
“Who else?”
She hesitated.
Ethan saw it.
“Peter.”
Madison closed her eyes.
Daniel handed the phone back to me.
“Do you have an alarm system there?”
“Yes.”
“An app?”
“Yes.”
“Open it.”
Her hands were shaking as she pulled out her phone.
She tapped through two screens.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Ethan asked.
“The alarm is disarmed.”
“By who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you see the log?”
She opened another screen.
Her face tightened.
“User two.”
“Who is user two?”
Madison whispered, “Peter.”
Daniel took out his own phone.
“Call the police.”
Madison looked up.
“You said they wouldn’t come.”
“That was a document dispute in a private home.”
He was already dialing.
“This is an active unauthorized access issue tied to attempted financial credential changes.”
Ethan stepped closer to Madison.
“What exactly does Peter have in that office?”
“Files.”
“What files?”
“I told you.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You said business records.”
“What records?”
She looked toward me.
I knew the answer before she said it.
“Copies of trust documents.”
My stomach dropped.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“What kind?”
“Statements.”
“Property schedules?”
“Yes.”
“Tax returns?”
She nodded.
Ethan swore.
“Mom’s Social Security number?”
Madison said nothing.
He stepped backward.
“You gave him everything.”
“I gave him what he said he needed.”
“For a business loan.”
“He said they were doing enhanced underwriting.”
“And that required my mother’s entire financial identity?”
“I didn’t know what was normal.”
“You ran around telling everyone you understood finance better than we did.”
Her face twisted.
“I was trying to keep the company alive.”
“You kept it alive by feeding it pieces of her.”
The sentence silenced all of us.
Daniel moved several yards away and began speaking with the dispatcher.
I looked at Madison.
“What else?”
She wiped her cheek.
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I don’t.”
“You knew enough to hide the office.”
“I hid it from Ethan.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Because he wanted to shut everything down.”
“And you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Her face crumpled for a second before she recovered.
“Because if we shut it down, all of it became real.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What became real?”
“That we failed.”
He looked almost confused.
“That was already real.”
“Not to everyone.”
Her voice was thin.
“Not to your mother.”
She looked at me.
“Not to my parents.”
“Not to the people I told.”
“What people?”
Ethan asked.
Madison rubbed her forehead.
“Friends.”
“What did you tell them?”
“That we were expanding.”
“We were closing units.”
“I know.”
“You told people we were expanding while we were breaking leases?”
She snapped, “I was trying to buy time.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Her answer came with such exhausted honesty that Ethan stopped attacking her.
For several seconds, they simply stood there.
Then Daniel returned.
“Officers are being dispatched to the office.”
Madison looked relieved.
“Good.”
“Do not go there.”
“I should meet them.”
“No.”
“It is my office.”
“And potentially a scene containing disputed financial records.”
Her face hardened again.
“I need to protect my property.”
“The best way to protect yourself right now is not to walk into that office before counsel advises you.”
She looked at Ethan.
“Are you coming with me?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
She blinked.
“Ethan.”
“No.”
“You can’t leave me alone in this.”
“You left me out of it months ago.”
“I did all of it for us.”
“Stop saying that.”
“It’s true.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You did it because you could not stand failing.”
Her eyes filled again.
He continued more quietly.
“And I helped because I could not stand admitting I had already failed.”
Madison looked at him as if she had been hoping for a different kind of blame.
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“I don’t know what happens to us.”
Her voice broke.
“You’re leaving me?”
“I don’t know.”
“You took your ring off.”
“I know.”
“Put it back on.”
He looked toward the house.
The ring was still inside.
“I’m not doing that tonight.”
Madison stared at him.
Then she laughed weakly.
“Your mother wins.”
I felt something hot rise in my chest.
Ethan answered before I could.
“This is exactly the problem.”
“What?”
“You think everything is her or you.”
Madison looked wounded.
“She never wanted me here.”
“That is not what I said.”
“She judged me from the first dinner.”
“You judged her too.”
“Because she treated me like a temporary guest.”
“She treated everyone like a temporary guest.”
Against my will, I almost smiled.
Ethan glanced at me.
“It’s true.”
“I know.”
Madison looked furious that the two of us had shared even that small moment.
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
He read a message.
“The officers are eight minutes out.”
Madison started toward her car.
He stepped into her path.
“Do not.”
“You cannot stop me.”
“No.”
He moved aside.
“But if you arrive before the police and confront whoever is inside, you may create a larger problem.”
She looked at her keys.
“You think Peter is there?”
“I think someone used his alarm code.”
“That could be him.”
“Yes.”
“What if he destroys everything?”
“Then arriving alone will not magically preserve it.”
She looked away.
I could see her calculating.
For once, calculation did not seem to comfort her.
Ethan said, “Give Daniel the office address.”
“He has it.”
“Then give him the alarm log.”
Madison hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because we are past why.”
She looked at him.
He held out his hand.
“Send it.”
Something in his voice made her obey.
Her thumbs moved across the phone.
Daniel received the screenshot and forwarded it.
Then he looked at me.
“You are still going home.”
I folded my arms.
“No.”
May you like
“Margaret.”
“If someone has enough information to impersonate me to my bank, I’m staying until I know what they took.”
