Chương 5
“I have prospects.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I have relationships in development.”
Harold muttered, “Oh, for God’s sake.”
Madison wheeled on him.
“Stay out of it.”
He raised both hands.
“Gladly.”
She turned back to Ethan.
“You think companies appear fully formed?”
“I think you billed my mother’s trust ninety-six thousand dollars.”
The number hit me harder than the earlier total.
“Why ninety-six?”
Ethan looked at me.
“Eight thousand a month.”
Twelve months.
The regularity of it made the deception feel more intimate.
Not one desperate theft.
A subscription.
Madison sat down.
“I worked.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Doing what?”
“I managed the properties.”
“That was our company.”
“I built the systems.”
“We paid you a salary.”
“A ridiculous salary.”
“You chose it.”
“Because you were terrified of your mother seeing what we were doing.”
“I was terrified because we were losing money.”
“You were terrified before we lost a dollar.”
She leaned forward.
“You have spent your entire adult life terrified that Margaret would stop approving you.”
He recoiled as though she had slapped him.
I looked down at my coffee.
I did not need Daniel to tell me that this part was not a legal question.
Ethan’s voice became quiet.
“And you used that.”
Madison’s face changed.
Something almost like hurt passed through it.
“I pushed you.”
“You used it.”
“I was trying to make you independent.”
“By stealing from her?”
“By building something that belonged to us.”
“It doesn’t belong to us.”
He gestured toward the laptop.
“It belongs to you.”
She looked at him for a long time.
“Yes.”
The simple answer silenced everyone.
Daniel closed the file folder.
“Ethan, this lender agreement has a personal guarantee.”
Ethan turned.
“I know.”
“It also references secondary collateral.”
His brow tightened.
“What collateral?”
Daniel slid a page across the table.
Ethan read it.
Then read it again.
“I didn’t sign this.”
Madison did not move.
Daniel looked at me.
Neither did I.
Ethan lifted the page with both hands.
“This isn’t my signature.”
Madison stood.
“Give me that.”
He stepped back.
“This is not my signature.”
She came around the table.
“I said give it to me.”
He held the document away from her.
“What did you do?”
Her voice rose.
“I fixed a problem you created.”
“You forged my name?”
“You were going to sign it.”
“I told you no.”
“You told me no on Tuesday and yes on Thursday about everything for five years.”
“This time I meant it.”
“How was I supposed to know that?”
The question hung there, ugly and absurd and somehow devastating.
Ethan stared at his wife.
Then he started laughing.
Not because anything was funny.
He laughed until he had to put one hand on the table.
Madison watched him as if he were the one behaving irrationally.
When he finally stopped, his eyes were wet.
“I don’t know whether to hate you or apologize to you.”
She said nothing.
“Because somehow you’re right.”
His voice broke.
“I taught you my no didn’t mean anything.”
Madison’s mouth trembled.
For one instant, she looked as though she might cry.
Then she hardened again.
“We can fix this.”
Daniel spoke before Ethan could.
“No one touches any document tonight.”
Madison glared at him.
“I’m not talking to you.”
“I know.”
He placed the lender agreement inside a clear sleeve from his portfolio.
“I’m telling you.”
She looked toward the front hall.
“I want everyone out of my house.”
Ethan straightened.
“Our house.”
She looked at him.
He looked toward the page Daniel had just protected.
Then toward his ring.
“No,” he said.
“I’m not sure it is.”
Madison looked toward the staircase as if the house itself had betrayed her.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Ethan lowered the lender agreement.
“It means I don’t know what else you signed.”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I handled paperwork you were too scared to handle.”
“That is forgery.”
“You were going to sign it.”
“I didn’t.”
“You would have.”
“But I didn’t.”
Her eyes moved around the room, searching for support and finding none.
Claire had folded her arms.
Rachel had picked up her phone again, though she kept the screen dark.
Harold stared into his coffee.
Beverly was slowly collecting dinner plates because she had apparently decided that cold turkey was one problem she could actually solve.
Madison looked at me.
“Say something.”
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
“You want my help now?”
“I want you to stop standing there like this is entertainment.”
“It isn’t.”
“You’ve been waiting for this.”
“No.”
“You have.”
She stepped closer.
“You finally get to prove you were right about me.”
I looked at her, really looked at her.
Her mascara had smudged faintly under one eye.
The gold fleck was still caught in her hair.
She was barefoot now, though I had not seen her remove her shoes.
“I would have preferred to be wrong.”
For once, she had no answer.
Daniel gathered the lender pages into a neat stack.
“We need to preserve these.”
Madison gave him a sharp look.
“They are not leaving this house.”
“They are Ethan’s copies.”
“They contain confidential company information.”
Ethan rubbed his forehead.
“It’s my name on them.”
“Not according to you.”
He stared at her.
She closed her eyes briefly.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No?”
“No.”
“What did you mean?”
She exhaled hard.
“I mean you’re accusing me of something before you understand what happened.”
“Then explain what happened.”
Madison glanced at Daniel.
“Not with him here.”
Ethan looked at me.
Then at Harold and Beverly.
Then at Claire and Rachel.
“This is already public enough.”
Madison’s expression sharpened.
“Public?”
“You announced Mom’s cards were shut off in front of everybody.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“Because I thought we had control of the accounts.”
The room went silent.
Even Beverly stopped stacking plates.
Madison seemed to hear herself a second too late.
Ethan’s face changed.
May you like
“You thought we had control.”
She opened her mouth.
