Chương 8
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re judging me.”
“I’m tired.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I’m not doing this with you.”
“You already did this.”
I turned toward her.
“No, Madison.”
My voice came out quieter than I expected.
“You did.”
She stared at me.
For the first time that night, she did not have a comeback.
Dad returned from the alcove.
Lewis was several steps behind him.
Dad’s face had gone completely blank.
“What happened?” Mom asked.
He looked at me.
Not at her.
At me.
“Martin resigned.”
I said nothing.
“And the lender froze the operating line.”
Lewis added, “Pending review.”
Dad laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Pending review.”
He looked around at the ballroom, the flowers, the police officers, his daughters, his wife, his new son-in-law, and the banker who no longer sounded like a friend.
Then he looked back at me.
“Thirty minutes.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“It took you thirty minutes.”
His voice was almost conversational now.
“Thirty minutes to tear apart everything I spent thirty years building.”
I felt the old urge to defend myself.
It rose automatically.
Then I looked at the bruise on my shoulder reflected in the dark elevator doors.
I looked at the fake email address on my phone.
I looked at Mom sitting alone in a chair while Madison and Trevor stood on opposite sides of the corridor.
“No,” I said.
“It took you thirty years.”
Dad stared at me as if I had struck him.
For once, I did not rush to soften the impact.
Lewis looked away.
Mom pressed her lips together.
Madison folded her arms tighter across her dress.
Trevor stood near the wall with his bow tie hanging open, watching all of us as if he had accidentally married into a documentary about financial fraud.
Dad recovered first.
“You think that’s clever?”
“No.”
“You think because you make more money than I do now, you get to sit there and judge thirty years of decisions?”
“I’m standing.”
He looked down at the chair behind me and then back at my face.
“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
“Then stop being cute.”
I almost apologized.
The word climbed halfway up my throat before I caught it.
That frightened me more than his anger.
Even now, with two forged authorizations sitting in my inbox and a bruise spreading across my shoulder, some old piece of me still wanted to make him comfortable.
Officer Ramirez stepped closer.
“Mr. Bennett, unless you are involved in the reported assault, I need you to give us some space.”
Dad laughed.
“Oh, I’m involved in everything now.”
Ramirez did not react.
“That’s not what I asked.”
He shook his head and moved toward Mom.
She shifted her chair slightly away from him.
The movement could not have been more than two inches.
He noticed.
So did I.
“Elaine.”
“I need a minute.”
“We don’t have a minute.”
“I do.”
Her voice was quiet enough that he leaned toward her.
She looked up.
“Do not make me say it louder.”
Dad straightened.
Madison stared at Mom with an expression that looked almost childlike.
Mom had spent years translating Dad’s moods for the rest of us.
He is stressed.
He didn’t mean it that way.
You know how he gets when business is bad.
Watching her refuse that role left all of us without our usual script.
Trevor’s phone began buzzing.
He glanced down.
“It’s my mom.”
Madison said, “Don’t answer.”
He looked at her.
“She’s ten feet away.”
“Then definitely don’t.”
For one brief, ridiculous second, I wanted to laugh.
Trevor did too.
His mouth twitched before guilt wiped it away.
The ballroom doors opened again, and his mother appeared.
I finally remembered her name.
Denise.
She looked at the officers, then at Trevor, then at Madison.
“Your father says there’s some kind of bank problem.”
Trevor sighed.
“Of course he does.”
Denise approached carefully.
She was still wearing the navy dress she had changed into after the ceremony, and one of her earrings had come loose.
She reached up and fixed it while looking at me.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m okay.”
Her eyes dropped to my shoulder.
“You don’t look okay.”
Madison made an exasperated sound.
Denise turned.
“Do not.”
Madison blinked.
“What?”
“Whatever you were about to say.”
“You don’t even know.”
“I know enough.”
Trevor said, “Mom.”
“No.”
Denise pointed toward Madison, though not aggressively.
“I watched her drag your sister-in-law down by the hair.”
“My sister,” Madison snapped.
“Your sister,” Denise corrected.
“Which makes it worse, not better.”
Madison’s face went hot again.
“You have no idea what Claire is like.”
Denise looked at me.
Then back at her.
“I don’t need a character reference to know what I saw.”
Trevor exhaled through his nose.
“Thank you.”
Madison rounded on him.
“Really?”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I want you to defend me.”
“From what?”
“Everyone.”
He stared at her.
“That is not a job.”
Her eyes filled.
Denise closed hers briefly.
No one enjoyed winning that exchange.
Madison looked down at the front of her dress and smoothed a crease that was not there.
“I just wanted one day.”
Her voice had changed.
The rage was gone.
She sounded young.
Mom looked at her.
“So did Trevor.”
Madison’s chin trembled.
“And Claire wanted a car.”
I felt exhaustion settle over me.
Not anger.
Something flatter.
“I wanted you not to steal my car.”
She looked at me.
“Dad said it was handled.”
“What did that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“He said it was a surprise.”
“For you?”
“Yes.”
“A surprise from me?”
She hesitated.
That was new.
“No.”
“Then who did you think bought it?”
Her eyes flicked toward Dad.
He said nothing.
Madison swallowed.
“I thought he did.”
“With what?”
Her expression tightened.
“There it is.”
“What?”
May you like
“The money thing.”
“I’m asking because five minutes ago we learned he owes more than two million dollars.”
