Chương 6
Her mother’s voice lowered.
“Your father handled those things.”
“How much?”
“I said I don’t know.”
“You know something.”
“Madison, he is having the worst day of his life.”
She almost laughed.
“So I should wait to ask whether he used my name to move money?”
“Don’t say things like that on the phone.”
There it was again.
Not denial.
Caution.
“Mom.”
“Come home.”
“No.”
“Your father needs you.”
Madison looked out at the sidewalk.
People passed carrying bags, coffee cups, dry-cleaning, backpacks. A man in a blue delivery jacket stopped to retie his shoe.
“What if I need him to tell me the truth?”
Her mother sighed.
“Then don’t make him feel cornered.”
Madison ended the call.
She sat there another twenty minutes before she realized she was crying.
Not dramatically.
Tears simply ran while she watched a bus stop at the light.
She wiped them away with a napkin that disintegrated against the concealer beneath her eyes.
Her phone buzzed.
Noah.
She stared at his name.
He had texted only once since ending the engagement.
Today made two.
Do not answer questions from reporters. Your name may come up.
She typed back.
Very comforting.
Three dots appeared.
Then vanished.
Then returned.
I mean it.
She wrote: I know.
A minute passed.
He sent: Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?
Madison looked at the message for a long time.
Then she turned her phone face down.
She stayed at a hotel.
Not because she needed one. She owned an apartment in Tribeca that her father had helped her buy the year after she graduated from business school. That was precisely why she could not go there.
The hotel room was on the ninth floor and looked directly into an office building where cleaning crews moved from floor to floor after dark.
Madison ordered soup.
When it arrived, she took three bites.
Her father called again.
This time she answered.
“Where are you?”
She almost smiled at the similarity between him and her mother.
“I’m safe.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“No, it isn’t.”
A pause.
His voice changed.
Less command.
More father.
“Maddie, I need you to listen to me.”
“I’ve been doing that for twenty-nine years.”
“Don’t start.”
“Then explain Hale Advisory.”
He breathed out.
“It was a vehicle.”
“For what?”
“Future planning.”
“That means nothing.”
“It was a legitimate consulting entity.”
“What did it consult on?”
Silence.
Madison stood and walked toward the window.
“Dad.”
“Certain strategy work.”
“Done by who?”
“I arranged the work.”
“Under my company?”
“The structure was efficient.”
“For who?”
“Madison.”
“For who?”
His voice sharpened.
“You benefited.”
“How?”
“There are assets.”
She stopped.
“What assets?”
“Investments.”
“In my name?”
“For you.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“You’re getting caught in language because Evelyn wants you frightened.”
“Did Cross Meridian pay my company six hundred and forty thousand dollars?”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
“Why?”
“Because services were invoiced.”
“What services?”
“That is complicated.”
“No. It’s actually becoming very simple.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“That’s true. So tell me.”
He did not.
Madison’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Did you use my badge?”
“No.”
“Did you give it to someone?”
A pause.
“Not exactly.”
Her eyes opened.
“What does that mean?”
“I had a duplicate made.”
For a moment, the room tilted.
“You what?”
“It was for convenience.”
“What convenience?”
“I occasionally needed after-hours access while my credentials were being reviewed.”
“Why were your credentials being reviewed?”
“Routine controls.”
“Dad.”
“I did not want unnecessary attention every time I had to work late.”
“So you copied my badge.”
“It wasn’t copying in the way you’re making it sound.”
“You had another badge encoded with my identity?”
He became irritated.
“You are focusing on the mechanism.”
“I’m focusing on the part where electronic records say I entered a building in the middle of the night when I was asleep somewhere else.”
“No one is going to blame you.”
“They already asked me where I was.”
“Evelyn is trying to divide us.”
Madison stared at the reflection of her own face in the glass.
“Why was my engagement ring in your office?”
This time, Richard did not answer at all.
“Dad?”
“Where did you hear that?”
“I saw it.”
A different kind of silence.
Madison felt cold.
“Why did you have it?”
“It was being held for safekeeping.”
“From what?”
“You were having problems with Noah.”
“So?”
“You left it at the house.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.”
“When?”
“Last fall.”
Madison’s mind moved backward through months.
Thanksgiving.
A dinner at her parents’ house.
An argument with Noah afterward.
She had removed the ring while helping her mother knead pie dough because flour had packed around the setting before.
She remembered setting it near the sink.
She remembered putting it back on before dessert.
Or thought she did.
“Did you take it?”
“I found it.”
“And replaced it?”
“I had a copy made because I knew you would panic.”
Madison sat on the edge of the bed.
“You had a duplicate of my engagement ring made.”
“I intended to return the original.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Things became complicated.”
“What things?”
Richard sounded exhausted now.
“I needed collateral.”
She went still.
“For what?”
“A short-term loan.”
“You used Noah’s grandmother’s ring as collateral?”
“I never pledged it.”
“You just said you needed collateral.”
“I considered it.”
“Dad.”
“I didn’t do it.”
“Then why keep it in your office?”
“I forgot it was there.”
She laughed.
She could not help it.
The sound scared her.
“You forgot a diamond ring worth more than most people’s houses was in your desk?”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“I don’t even know how to exaggerate this.”
He inhaled sharply.
“Maddie, listen. There were liquidity pressures. I was managing them.”
“With my company?”
“I was protecting assets.”
“Whose?”
“Our family’s.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer that matters.”
She stood again.
“No.”
His voice softened.
“You’re upset.”
May you like
“Yes.”
“You’re letting them turn this into betrayal.”
