Chương 10
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at her.
Dana held the look.
“I believe you. My job is not to confuse believing you with pretending the case will be easy.”
Emily sat.
“What do they want?”
“His criminal attorney has approached the prosecutor about resolution.”
“A plea.”
“Potentially.”
“To what?”
“Nothing final.”
“What does Daniel want?”
Dana hesitated.
“He wants the financial investigation separated publicly from the lodge incident.”
Emily laughed.
“Of course.”
“He also wants a mutual non-disparagement agreement in the divorce.”
“No.”
“I didn’t say you should agree.”
“No.”
“Emily.”
“No.”
Dana waited.
Emily crossed her arms.
“He tried to turn me into a psychiatric patient because I was going to meet Lauren.”
“We believe that’s part of his motive.”
“He packed my passport.”
“Yes.”
“He put drugs in my water.”
“The evidence supports that.”
“And now he wants me to promise not to embarrass him.”
Dana rubbed her forehead.
“When you say it like that, it does sound bad.”
“It is bad.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, Dana smiled.
The divorce filing became public on a Thursday.
By Friday morning, a business website had published a short article connecting Daniel’s criminal case to Mercer Development’s internal financial review.
By lunch, Emily’s photo appeared beside the phrase GOVERNANCE QUESTIONS.
That hurt more than the articles about Daniel.
She hated herself for caring.
The worst part was the photograph they used.
A charity gala three years earlier.
Emily wore a blue dress and was laughing at something outside the frame.
Daniel’s hand rested at the small of her back.
She stared at the image on her phone until Lauren took it from her.
They were sitting in a diner two blocks from the forensic accounting firm.
“You’re reading comments,” Lauren said.
“Give it back.”
“No.”
“You have a fourteen-year-old. You should understand phone boundaries.”
“I understand them. I reject yours.”
“Lauren.”
“No.”
Emily reached across the table.
Lauren held the phone away.
A server arrived with two plates of fries and looked at them.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes,” Lauren said.
“No,” Emily said.
The server backed away.
Emily laughed.
Lauren put the phone face down.
“Eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Neither am I. That has never stopped Americans before.”
Emily took one fry.
Lauren pushed ketchup toward her.
For several minutes they ate without speaking.
Then Emily said, “I hated you too.”
Lauren nodded.
“I assumed.”
“No, I really hated you.”
“That helps.”
“You made me feel stupid.”
“I was trying to tell you your husband was moving company money.”
“You could have been nicer.”
Lauren stared at her.
Emily smiled despite herself.
“There. That look.”
“What look?”
“The one where you decide whether murder would create paperwork.”
Lauren laughed.
Emily’s smile faded.
“I’m sorry.”
Lauren looked down at her plate.
“You keep saying that.”
“I keep finding new things.”
“Eventually you’ll run out.”
“I doubt it.”
Lauren tore a fry in half.
“I wasn’t nice because I was angry.”
“You had a right to be.”
“I also wanted to win.”
Emily waited.
Lauren looked toward the window.
“When Daniel started pushing me out, I made everything a fight. Every meeting. Every email. I wanted him to lose in front of people.”
“That sounds familiar.”
“Yeah.”
Lauren glanced back at her.
“I wasn’t protecting you. Not entirely.”
“You came to the lodge.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“I know.”
“Richard told you?”
“He tells everyone everything.”
Lauren smiled.
Then she said, “I wanted you to apologize.”
“I did.”
“I wanted it before you almost died.”
Emily looked at the red plastic ketchup bottle between them.
“That would have been better.”
“Much.”
The outside accountants completed their preliminary report in April.
Daniel had diverted or improperly pledged more than eleven million dollars in Mercer Development assets.
Some transactions were unauthorized.
Some rested on manipulated approvals.
Some, however, were valid under the authority Emily had signed over to him.
That distinction became the center of every argument.
Andrew wanted the company to characterize Daniel as a rogue executive who exploited broad but legitimate powers.
Paul wanted the board to acknowledge governance failures.
Judith wanted everyone to stop talking to reporters.
Lauren wanted the report released to lenders before rumors did more damage.
Emily wanted to throw the document into a fireplace.
Instead she read all 186 pages.
Twice.
On page 143 she found her own email.
January 22.
Daniel,
I don’t care how you structure it. I can’t deal with another lender call this week. Handle whatever you need to handle and send me the summary later.
E.
Emily stared at it for a long time.
She remembered sending it.
Her father had been dead seventeen days.
She had not slept properly since the funeral.
A lender had called during breakfast.
Another during a meeting with the estate attorney.
Andrew was in New York trying to salvage a different financing issue.
Daniel sat beside her at the kitchen island and said he could take some of it off her plate.
Emily opened her laptop.
I don’t care how you structure it.
She had meant: deal with the meeting.
Daniel had treated it as permission for much more.
Or perhaps Emily had allowed herself to believe words became narrower after they caused harm.
She closed the report.
Andrew found her in the empty boardroom that evening.
Most employees had gone home.
Cleaning staff moved carts quietly through the hall.
Emily was folding and unfolding the paper sleeve from a coffee cup.
Andrew sat across from her.
“You read it.”
“Yes.”
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good talk.”
She pushed the report toward him.
“Page 143.”
“I saw it.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I assumed you had enough people telling you what you did wrong.”
Emily looked at him.
“That’s unexpectedly kind.”
“Don’t spread it around.”
She turned the coffee sleeve over.
“I gave him room.”
Andrew nodded.
“He drove a truck through it.”
“I still gave him room.”
“Both things can be true.”
Emily smiled faintly.
May you like
“Beth says that.”
“Beth sounds exhausting.”
