Chương 11
“That’s fair.”
“I didn’t ask if it was fair.”
“No.”
He stopped himself again.
“I’m warning you.”
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor was right about me too.”
I waited.
“I spent most of my life believing being useful was the same as being decent.”
For once, he did not dress the sentence in business language.
“When she made me promise to protect the letter, I treated it like another obligation.”
His eyes dropped to the floor.
“I should have treated you like a person who deserved information.”
The apology was imperfect.
It did not ask forgiveness.
That made it easier to hear.
“What does any of this have to do with Dad trying to marry me to you?”
Thomas’s face changed.
“That part started this morning.”
“Explain.”
“After I refused the guarantee yesterday, Richard called me repeatedly overnight.”
“Did you answer?”
“Twice.”
“What did he want?”
“For me to reconsider.”
“And?”
“I refused.”
“What changed this morning?”
“He came to my house at six.”
“You let him in?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He looked terrible.”
“That’s a weak reason.”
“It was.”
Thomas rubbed a hand over his jaw.
“He told me you had fallen and were in the hospital.”
“Did he tell you I was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Did you know before?”
“No.”
“Were you surprised?”
“Yes.”
Something about his tone made me believe him.
“What did Dad ask you to do?”
“Buy the house.”
“You already did.”
“Not exactly.”
I held up my phone.
“There is a recorded deed.”
“The entity named on that deed belongs to me.”
“So you bought it.”
“I authorized an escrow structure weeks ago for a potential purchase from your father.”
“My father doesn’t own my house.”
“I was told it was part of a broader asset transfer you had approved.”
“You signed without asking me?”
“I signed preliminary acquisition documents, not the deed.”
“Then how was the deed recorded?”
“I don’t know yet.”
His voice hardened.
“But I did not authorize anyone to forge your signature.”
“Did you authorize your company to accept the property?”
“No closing was supposed to occur without title verification.”
“So either your people failed or someone bypassed them.”
“Yes.”
“Which?”
“I’m trying to find out.”
“Before or after you went inside my house?”
“Before.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Looking for Daniel.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Richard told me Daniel had handled the paperwork.”
I looked at the voicemail again.
Daniel had said he signed because Dad claimed Mercer was buying the house temporarily to protect it from creditors.
Two versions of the same transaction.
Neither included me.
“Did Daniel admit signing?”
“Yes.”
“Did he admit knowing my signature was forged?”
Thomas hesitated.
“He said Richard brought him papers already signed.”
“So Daniel claims he didn’t see me sign.”
“Correct.”
“Did that bother him?”
“Yes.”
“Enough to stop?”
“No.”
The answer hit cleaner than any defense could have.
“What was in the envelope in Tessa’s picture?”
“This.”
Thomas nodded toward Eleanor’s letter.
“Why bring it to my house?”
“I intended to give it to you if you returned.”
“You knew I was hospitalized.”
“I didn’t know which hospital until later.”
“So why go there?”
“Because Richard said Daniel was there and had access to your documents.”
“Did you search my house?”
“No.”
“Did Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Dad?”
“Yes.”
The room went still.
“What did he search?”
“Your office.”
I gripped the blanket.
“My home office?”
“Yes.”
“What was he looking for?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Did you ask?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He told me it was something you had taken from the company.”
“I haven’t taken anything.”
“I believed that.”
“Why?”
Thomas almost answered quickly, then stopped.
“Because Richard was scared.”
“That doesn’t mean I didn’t take something.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because if you had knowingly taken what he wanted, you wouldn’t have left it somewhere he could access.”
That was coldly logical.
“What did he find?”
“I don’t know.”
“You watched him search my office and did nothing?”
“I argued with him.”
“That must have been devastating for him.”
Thomas took the sarcasm.
“I should have stopped him.”
“How?”
“I could have called police.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I was still trying to solve this privately.”
The sentence hung there.
It was ugly because it was familiar.
Dad solved things privately.
Daniel solved things privately.
Mom hid phones privately.
Thomas concealed old fraud privately.
Every man in my life seemed to believe discretion became morality if they said the word family or business afterward.
“And then Dad proposed marriage.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“Not exactly.”
“What exactly?”
“He said there was one way to consolidate the exposure.”
“Consolidate.”
“I told him the idea was insane.”
“What idea?”
“He said if you and Daniel divorced and you married me, the house transfer could be reframed as part of a voluntary marital asset arrangement while Mercer Capital provided emergency financing to Shaw.”
I stared at him.
Even Renee stopped writing.
“He wanted to turn fraud into a wedding.”
“Yes.”
“And you?”
“I refused.”
“Immediately?”
Thomas did not answer quickly enough.
My stomach turned.
“Thomas.”
“I told him it was impossible.”
“That isn’t the same as refusing.”
“No.”
“What did you think about?”
His face flushed again.
“The company.”
Of course.
“Did you consider it?”
“For perhaps thirty seconds.”
Thirty seconds was nothing.
Thirty seconds was forever.
“You considered marrying me to clean up a transaction involving my stolen property.”
“I considered whether there was any lawful restructuring hidden inside what he was proposing.”
“That is not better.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I considered it.”
His voice finally rose.
“I considered it because nine hundred people might lose their jobs, because Richard was panicking, because the financing could theoretically stabilize the company, and because I have spent twenty years cleaning up his disasters.”
He stopped himself.
The room held the anger he had finally allowed.
Then his voice dropped.
“And then I looked at the dress.”
I blinked.
“What dress?”
May you like
“He had it in his car.”
The image of Dad outside the hospital returned.
