Chương 3
Julian did not.
I sat across from him.
“You invested forty thousand dollars in a startup?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does not exactly mean?”
He pressed his palms together.
“There were initial expenses.”
I waited.
“Software.”
I waited.
“Consultants.”
I kept waiting.
He exhaled.
“And a deposit.”
“For what?”
“Office space.”
My stomach tightened.
“How much did you invest?”
He looked away.
The answer arrived before he spoke.
“More than forty.”
Eleanor sat down.
“How much more?”
Julian’s voice was barely audible.
“One hundred and ten.”
I stared at him.
I had prepared myself for another affair.
I had prepared myself for hidden debts.
I had not prepared for a six-figure business I did not know existed.
“Where did seventy thousand dollars come from?”
His silence changed.
Darcy noticed it too.
She leaned forward.
“Julian.”
He glanced at her.
She spoke carefully.
“Do not answer me as if I’m your lawyer.”
“I know.”
“Then answer your wife.”
He looked at me.
“Credit.”
My mouth went dry.
“What credit?”
“Personal.”
“In whose name?”
“Mine.”
I heard myself breathe out.
Darcy asked, “Secured by anything?”
Julian hesitated.
That hesitation was worse than every answer so far.
I stood.
“What did you use as collateral?”
“Sloan.”
“What did you use?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“It wasn’t supposed to matter.”
Darcy’s voice sharpened.
“What did you pledge?”
Julian looked at the folder.
Then at me.
“The company shares.”
I frowned.
“What company shares?”
“My shares in Mercer Health.”
Eleanor looked confused.
“You don’t own Mercer Health.”
“I own a piece.”
“No, you don’t.”
Julian closed his eyes.
“Yes, I do.”
Eleanor stared at him.
Mercer Health had belonged to Julian’s father before his death.
The company was modest but profitable, three outpatient clinics spread across northern Virginia, and everyone in the family understood that Eleanor owned the controlling interest while Julian and his younger sister, Camille, would eventually inherit.
Eleanor’s voice became very quiet.
“How much?”
“Eight percent.”
She shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
“Dad transferred it before he died.”
“He would have told me.”
“He didn’t.”
“He told me everything.”
Julian looked at her then.
“No, Mom.”
Something old and wounded passed between them.
“He didn’t.”
Eleanor went pale.
For the first time, the argument was no longer about me.
I almost resented that.
Then I felt ashamed for resenting it.
Darcy tapped one finger against the table.
“How does that connect to Sloan?”
Julian swallowed.
“It doesn’t.”
I knew him well enough to hear the lie.
“Julian.”
“It doesn’t directly.”
“What does directly mean?”
He looked toward the front hall.
“I need water.”
“Get water.”
He stayed seated.
Nobody moved.
Finally he said, “The lender asked for additional financial information.”
Darcy’s voice was flat.
“Whose?”
“Ours.”
I stopped breathing for a second.
“What did you give them?”
“Tax returns.”
“Without telling me?”
“They’re joint returns.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
He looked at the floor.
“And asset statements.”
Darcy sat straighter.
“What asset statements?”
Julian did not respond.
I knew before he said it.
The house.
He had represented my house as though it were available to him.
My fingers went cold.
“You used Bellweather?”
“I didn’t mortgage the house.”
“That is not what she asked,” Darcy said.
Julian snapped at her.
“I know what she asked.”
“Then answer.”
He hit the table with the flat of his hand.
Not hard.
Still, every muscle in my body tightened.
He saw it.
His face changed immediately.
He pulled his hand back as though the table had burned him.
“Sloan.”
I stood.
“Don’t.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Don’t.”
Darcy rose too.
Eleanor remained seated, staring at her son.
Julian’s eyes dropped to my wrist.
The faint mark from the tea was visible beneath my sleeve.
Something collapsed in his expression.
“I didn’t mean for that cup to hit you.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I know you hit the counter.”
He swallowed.
“I would never hit you.”
The sentence should have comforted me.
Instead, I heard the strange boundary inside it.
As though frightening me did not count because his hand had struck marble rather than skin.
I moved away from the table.
Darcy gathered the papers into one stack.
“We need a copy of every document you submitted to the lender.”
Julian stared at her.
“You’re not getting anything.”
Eleanor spoke without raising her voice.
“Give her the documents.”
He turned.
“Mom.”
“You heard me.”
“You don’t understand what’s at stake.”
“No.”
She looked exhausted suddenly.
“I am beginning to think none of us do.”
Julian walked into the kitchen and filled a glass from the refrigerator dispenser.
His hand trembled against the rim.
“I have a meeting Monday.”
“With whom?”
He took a long drink.
“The investors.”
“What happens Monday?”
He put the glass down.
“If I don’t bring in another seventy-five thousand dollars, I lose the company.”
I almost laughed from disbelief.
“That’s why you wanted twenty-eight thousand for Europe?”
He did not answer.
Eleanor’s head turned slowly toward him.
My stomach dropped.
I looked at her.
She looked at me.
Neither of us needed Darcy to explain it.
“There is no Europe trip,” I said.
Eleanor’s lips parted.
Julian stared at the counter.
“Not the way she thinks.”
Eleanor stood so quickly her chair scraped across the floor.
“You used me?”
“Mom, listen.”
“You told me Sloan was refusing to pay for my trip.”
“I was going to book it.”
“With what?”
“After Monday.”
Her face crumpled, but only for a second.
Then anger took its place.
“You brought me into her house to shame her into giving you money.”
“I needed time.”
“You made me sit there and call her selfish.”
“I was desperate.”
“You let me do it.”
Julian’s voice rose.
“Because I knew she’d say no if I asked for investment money.”
I stared at him.
There it was.
Not confusion.
Not misunderstanding.
A plan.
May you like
He had used his mother because he believed I would find it harder to refuse her than him.
The tea, the shouting, the order to leave had all grown from a lie he had built before breakfast.
