Chương 8
“You were on a panel?”
“Virtual panel.”
“Okay.”
Julian opened the next email.
Daniel had moved the conversation off the conference platform after three messages.
Within two weeks, he was discussing funding.
Within four, he had requested forecasts.
Within six, he had introduced himself as representing Harbor Peak.
Darcy asked, “Did you verify him independently?”
“I looked up Harbor Peak.”
“Not the firm.”
She pointed at the name.
“Him.”
Julian said nothing.
Camille sat down.
“Jesus.”
“I checked his LinkedIn.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You connected with him?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.”
Julian opened the site and searched his connections.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Then broader.
There was no profile.
“It was there.”
Camille did not answer.
“It was.”
“I believe you.”
Her tone contained no sarcasm this time.
That seemed to bother him more.
His phone buzzed.
A text from Daniel appeared on the screen.
Need confirmation today.
Harbor Peak committee will not hold allocation past 4 PM.
Call me.
Julian reached for the phone.
Darcy caught his wrist.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her hand.
She released him immediately.
“Do not call him until you speak to your attorney.”
“I need to know who he is.”
“And hearing his voice will prove that?”
“He’ll explain.”
Camille stared at him.
“Julian.”
“What?”
“He has already explained everything.”
“No, he hasn’t.”
“Yes.”
She pointed at the false domain.
“He explained exactly what he wanted you to believe.”
Julian stood and walked away from the island.
His phone remained on the counter.
It buzzed again.
Then once more.
I watched his shoulders rise and fall.
There was something almost unbearable about seeing him fight the impulse to answer.
Not because I pitied him completely.
I did not.
He had lied to me deliberately.
He had used Eleanor.
He had risked money that was not his alone.
Being deceived did not erase any of that.
But shame is cruelest when it gives a person two truths at once.
Julian had been both victim and author of the disaster.
Eleanor walked to the sink and rinsed out a clean cup that did not need rinsing.
Camille stared at the email chain.
Darcy made two calls from the hallway.
I stood in the middle of my kitchen and noticed the tea stain from yesterday still faintly marking the grout beside the island.
No one had cleaned it properly.
I got a sponge.
Eleanor watched me.
“Sloan.”
“What?”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know.”
I scrubbed anyway.
She stood beside me for several seconds.
Then she picked up a dish towel and dried the counter.
Neither of us spoke.
It was the first time I could remember being in a kitchen with Eleanor without one of us performing some version of ourselves for the other.
After a minute, she said, “I was awful to you yesterday.”
I kept scrubbing.
“Yes.”
She nodded.
“I thought you were punishing me.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I know that now.”
I rinsed the sponge.
“Would you have cared if Julian hadn’t lied to you too?”
The question came out harsher than I intended.
Eleanor stopped drying.
I expected defensiveness.
Instead she folded the towel once.
Then again.
“I don’t know.”
That answer made me look at her.
She met my eyes.
“I would like to tell you yes.”
Her mouth tightened.
“But I have been very comfortable believing my son deserved whatever you could afford to give him.”
She set the towel down.
“That comfort probably required me not to examine you very closely.”
I had imagined apologies from Eleanor before.
In those imaginary versions, she always understood everything and I always said something elegant.
The real one was smaller and uglier.
It was also more useful.
“I let you,” I said.
Her eyebrows lifted.
“I paid for things because paying was easier than arguing.”
“That doesn’t make what we did acceptable.”
“No.”
“But it made the arrangement possible.”
She looked toward Julian.
“Yes.”
Darcy came back into the kitchen.
“I reached someone who handles financial fraud and lender disputes.”
Julian turned.
“My lawyer?”
“Someone you may choose to call.”
She slid a business card from her wallet and wrote a number on the back.
“He is not expecting privileged details from me.”
Julian took it.
“What do I tell him?”
“The truth.”
Camille said, “That could take a while.”
Julian gave her a tired look.
She immediately looked ashamed.
“Sorry.”
He surprised all of us.
“So am I.”
Then he dialed.
He walked into the dining room and closed the glass doors behind him.
We could see him speaking but not hear the words.
Eleanor sat beside Camille.
I remained standing.
Fifteen minutes passed.
Then twenty.
At one point Camille offered me her grocery-store coffee.
I took a sip and nearly spat it out.
“This is horrible.”
“I know.”
“Why are you drinking it?”
“I paid four dollars.”
“That is not a reason.”
“It is exactly a reason.”
I laughed.
The sound startled me.
Eleanor smiled faintly.
Then the glass door opened.
Julian came back into the kitchen holding the business card.
His face had changed.
Not panic.
Something more sober.
“The attorney wants me to preserve everything and make no contact with Daniel.”
Darcy nodded.
“He also wants to see the Ridgeway documents.”
“Good.”
Julian rubbed the card between his fingers.
“And he says I need to notify Ridgeway that there may have been fraud connected to the financing representations.”
Camille asked, “Today?”
“Yes.”
Eleanor leaned forward.
“What happens then?”
Julian stared at the card.
“They may freeze further activity and review the whole facility.”
“Can they come after Mercer Health?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can they?”
“I said I don’t know.”
His voice rose, then fell immediately.
“Sorry.”
Eleanor looked down.
Julian turned to me.
“And he says if I submitted Bellweather documents without your authorization, you should have separate counsel.”
“I do.”
His eyes flicked toward Darcy.
“Right.”
For a moment, nobody had anything left to say.
May you like
Then Julian picked up his phone.
Daniel had sent six more messages.
