Chương 3
Maya frowned.
“What does that have to do with my mother?”
“He wanted to change his estate plan.”
Victoria became still.
Daniel continued.
“He wanted to remove me as sole trustee.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t trust me.”
The admission landed without decoration.
Maya had expected him to defend himself.
He did not.
“He told Elena?” she asked.
“She heard things.”
“What things?”
“Arguments. Calls. Meetings with attorneys.”
“And you paid her fifty thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
“To stay quiet.”
Daniel’s gaze dropped.
“Yes.”
Victoria sat back.
Maya felt strangely calm.
“So you bribed my mother.”
“I paid her to sign a confidentiality agreement.”
“That’s a rich man’s spelling of bribed.”
Daniel accepted that without reaction.
Victoria pulled another page from the envelope.
“Where’s the agreement?”
“I don’t have it.”
“You paid fifty thousand dollars for an agreement you don’t have?”
“It disappeared.”
“When?”
“After my father died.”
Maya looked at the photograph again.
“When did he die?”
“September 3, 2002.”
Two weeks after the photograph.
Maya’s skin prickled.
“And my mother left?”
“September fifth.”
“Why?”
“She was fired.”
“By you?”
“Yes.”
Maya’s hand tightened around the chair.
Victoria whispered, “Jesus.”
Daniel looked at her sharply.
“You wanted the truth.”
“I wanted the truth eleven years ago.”
“This has nothing to do with you.”
Victoria stared at him.
“I’m your wife.”
“Yes.”
“That means the things you did before I met you can still have something to do with me when they’re sitting at my dinner table.”
Daniel looked away.
Maya bent and picked up the photograph.
Her mother’s smile was small.
Elena had never liked photographs.
She always said she looked like she had been caught stealing something.
Maya ran a thumb over the white border.
“What did she know?”
Daniel did not answer.
“What did my mother know?”
“She knew my father had contacted another attorney.”
“About his will?”
“About the trust.”
“And?”
“And she knew I stopped the meeting.”
“How?”
“I told the attorney my father was medically incompetent.”
“Was he?”
Daniel’s silence stretched.
Victoria said, “Daniel.”
“He had periods of lucidity.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I had doctors who believed he lacked capacity.”
“Did Elena disagree?”
“Yes.”
Maya looked at him.
“Was she right?”
Daniel’s jaw moved.
“Yes.”
The word was barely louder than the engines.
Maya put the photograph down.
She wanted to slap him.
The desire came so suddenly that her right hand actually opened.
Daniel saw it.
Neither of them moved.
Maya said, “So my mother knew your father was lucid, knew he wanted to change his estate, and you paid her.”
“Yes.”
“And then you fired her.”
“Yes.”
“And then what?”
Daniel stared at the cream envelope.
“She threatened to go to his attorney.”
Maya’s heartbeat seemed to climb into her throat.
“And?”
“I threatened her back.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Maya heard herself ask, “With what?”
Daniel did not answer quickly enough.
“With what?”
“Her immigration status.”
Maya blinked.
“My mother was born in Connecticut.”
“Not hers.”
“Whose?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Ruth’s.”
The salon went quiet again.
Maya stepped back.
Aunt Ruth.
The woman who had raised Maya after Elena died.
The woman who had spent thirty-one years cleaning offices, hotel rooms, and private homes.
The woman who still carried her naturalization certificate in a plastic sleeve because she was terrified some government clerk would one day ask her to prove she belonged in the country.
Maya whispered, “You threatened my aunt?”
“She was undocumented then.”
“You threatened to report her.”
“I said I could.”
Maya’s eyes burned.
She refused to blink.
Victoria stood.
“Give me your phone.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“Your phone.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m calling the captain.”
“No.”
Victoria stared at him.
Daniel’s voice remained level.
“Nobody leaves this yacht in the middle of the night because of a conversation from twenty-four years ago.”
“This isn’t about leaving.”
“Then what?”
“I want Maya moved out of staff quarters.”
Maya looked at her.
Victoria continued, “She gets a guest cabin. She doesn’t serve us. She doesn’t clean up your broken glass. And until I understand why you have documents about her mother sitting beside my dinner plate, she is not your employee.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You don’t run my crew.”
“No. I run the foundation that currently has four board members aboard this yacht, two donors arriving tomorrow, and a husband who apparently blackmailed a nurse.”
Maya said, “I don’t need a guest cabin.”
Victoria looked at her.
“I wasn’t asking what you need.”
The coldness returned immediately.
Maya stiffened.
Victoria saw it.
For a second something like embarrassment crossed her face.
She looked down.
“Sorry.”
It was not warm.
But it was real.
“I’m trying to make sure he can’t fire you before morning.”
Daniel said, “I’m not firing her.”
“Wonderful. Your moral development is breathtaking.”
“Victoria.”
“No.”
She pointed at the envelope.
“You knew yesterday who Maya was. You brought that envelope to dinner. You waited until I left the room, then knocked a tray out of her hands and accused her of hiding her identity. What were you trying to do?”
Daniel looked at Maya.
Maya had wondered the same thing.
He said, “I wanted her to admit why she was here.”
“You could’ve asked.”
“I did.”
Maya frowned.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yesterday afternoon. I asked why you chose the Belladonna.”
“You asked whether I liked yacht work.”
“I asked why this yacht.”
“And I said the pay was good.”
“You lied.”
“I answered an employer asking an employee a question.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
Victoria looked almost amused.
“You don’t like it when people use technically accurate answers, do you?”
Daniel ignored her.
“Maya came aboard looking for information.”
“Yes,” Maya said.
“And she accessed my private office.”
Victoria turned.
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“I didn’t.”
“The door log recorded your crew card at 2:13 this morning.”
“I brought your medication.”
“You aren’t responsible for my medication.”
“Owen asked me to leave the packet on your desk because you were on the aft deck.”
May you like
Daniel stared at her.
Maya stared back.
