Chương 10
That silenced everyone.
Dad looked toward the corridor.
“Yes.”
My phone vibrated again.
Rachel had sent another message.
Emily, people are naming your dad now.
I opened the social post.
The original video had doubled in views.
Someone had added a comment claiming Bellamy’s owner was connected to the Whitmore family through “major downtown real estate deals.”
Another commenter said there had been “business tension for years.”
The speed of it made me nauseous.
“Someone knows about the companies.”
Dad took my phone.
He read the comments.
“Could be public records.”
“Could be Linda.”
Daniel shook his head.
“She’s locked in a basement archive room.”
“She has a phone.”
His own phone buzzed.
We both looked at it.
A message from Howard appeared.
I’m on my way back.
Do not let your mother destroy anything.
Daniel read it twice.
Then he called.
Howard answered immediately.
“Dad, what can she destroy?”
A rush of words came through.
Daniel’s face changed.
“Slow down.”
He listened.
“No, I’m not putting Richard on.”
Dad looked at him.
Daniel turned away.
“Tell me.”
Another pause.
“What copies?”
He looked back at us.
“What copies?” I asked.
Daniel held up a hand.
His voice became very quiet.
“Dad, were there paper records from the billing review?”
Dad stiffened.
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Howard was still speaking.
“When did she find them?”
Dad stepped closer.
“Put him on speaker.”
Daniel did not.
“Dad, answer me.”
He listened.
Then his shoulders dropped.
“She found them last year.”
Mom stood again.
“How?”
Daniel lowered the phone.
“He says she found a folder in his home office.”
Dad swore again.
“What was in it?”
“Copies of invoices.”
“Internal Bellamy notes?”
Howard answered loudly enough through the phone that Daniel pulled it away from his ear.
Daniel looked at Dad.
“He says yes.”
Dad’s face went pale.
“How did he have internal notes?”
Daniel relayed the question.
Howard’s answer took longer.
When Daniel finally looked up, he seemed sick.
“He copied them during the review.”
Marcus stared at Dad.
“You let him remove company documents?”
“No.”
Dad looked furious now.
“He was supposed to review them in my office.”
Mom folded her arms.
“So Howard took copies.”
“Yes.”
“And Linda found them.”
“Yes.”
“And now Linda is inside your archive room.”
Marcus’s radio crackled.
The security guard’s voice came through.
“She’s moving boxes against the door.”
Dad moved toward the corridor.
Marcus stepped into his path again.
“Richard.”
“I heard him.”
“And police are almost here.”
“She could be destroying records.”
“She could also be waiting for you to rush in angry.”
Dad stopped.
The possibility seemed to land.
Mom looked at him.
“Marcus is right.”
Dad rubbed the bridge of his nose.
I could see how much he hated being told to wait inside his own building.
Daniel ended the call.
“He says she told him last year that she could use the records if your companies ever tried to cut ties with theirs.”
Dad stared at him.
“Use them how?”
“By claiming you buried financial misconduct.”
“That would implicate Howard.”
“I know.”
“No, Daniel, it would put your father in the middle of it.”
“I know.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
He looked away.
For the first time, I saw something beyond anger on his face.
Shame.
Not for himself.
For the realization that his parents had built parts of their life inside arrangements he had never seen.
I moved toward him instinctively.
Then stopped.
He noticed that too.
Everything between us had become a hesitation.
The service elevator chimed.
Two uniformed police officers stepped into the lower hallway with Marcus’s assistant manager behind them.
Marcus immediately went to meet them.
Dad stayed where he was.
Mom reached for his hand.
He let her take it.
One officer, a woman with gray threaded through her dark hair, listened while Marcus explained.
She glanced toward us, then toward the basement access.
“Who owns the property?”
Dad raised his hand slightly.
“I do.”
“Is the woman authorized to be in the archive area?”
“No.”
“Did anyone give her permission tonight?”
“No.”
“Any weapons that you know of?”
Daniel answered.
“No.”
The officer looked at him.
“You’re related to her?”
“She’s my mother.”
“Has she threatened to hurt herself or anyone else?”
Daniel hesitated.
“No.”
Then he added, “Not exactly.”
The officer’s expression sharpened.
“What does that mean?”
“She’s angry, and she sent some threatening messages about business records.”
“Threatening violence?”
“No.”
“Then stay here.”
Daniel nodded.
The second officer disappeared down the basement stairs with Marcus.
The woman officer followed a few seconds later.
We waited.
The dining room above us continued to exist.
Someone laughed near the bar.
A dishwasher cart rattled through the kitchen.
The absurd normalcy of it made my skin crawl.
Mom noticed a loose thread on Dad’s sleeve and picked at it.
“Hold still.”
Dad looked down.
“Now?”
“It’s bothering me.”
He let her pull it free.
Nobody laughed.
Three minutes passed.
Then five.
Daniel checked his phone twice without unlocking it.
My ring felt too tight.
I twisted it once.
Dad saw.
He looked away.
Mom did not.
“Emily.”
“Don’t.”
She nodded.
“All right.”
The basement radio crackled.
Marcus’s voice came through.
“We have contact.”
Dad straightened.
“Is she coming out?”
A pause.
“Not yet.”
Daniel whispered, “Mom.”
Then another voice came over the radio, distant but unmistakably Linda’s.
“You tell Richard Hayes I know what he did.”
Static swallowed the next words.
Dad’s face tightened.
Marcus responded too quietly to hear.
Linda shouted again.
“He thought he could buy my family’s silence.”
Daniel went white.
Dad stared at the radio.
Mom’s grip tightened around his hand.
I looked at him.
“What does she mean?”
“I never paid them.”
“Then why would she say that?”
“I don’t know.”
The radio crackled again.
This time Linda’s voice was clearer.
“Ask him about the event company contract.”
Dad closed his eyes.
A terrible stillness entered Mom’s face.
“What event company contract?”
Dad opened his eyes.
May you like
“Patty.”
“What contract?”
