Chương 3
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have your medication?”
“Yes.”
“Did anyone threaten you?”
“Only with independence.”
“Robert.”
“No one threatened me.”
“What happened?”
He gave her the facts in order. He omitted the caterers, the silence after his question, and the way Ethan had looked at the staircase instead of at him.
Dana let him finish.
“You were entitled to cancel under the distribution agreement,” she said. “The updated disclosure package was a condition, not a courtesy. But if you’re alleging misrepresentation, we need to know exactly what changed and who changed it.”
“The Westbridge lease was listed as committed.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“I called Westbridge.”
“Why?”
“Because their chief operating officer was at brunch and congratulated Ethan on finding another anchor tenant.”
Dana was quiet.
Robert continued. “The spreadsheet says Westbridge signed a seven-year lease occupying thirty-eight thousand square feet. They withdrew four days ago.”
“Did Ethan know you called?”
“He knows now.”
“And Vanessa?”
“She told me I had no right to embarrass them in their home.”
“Did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Embarrass them intentionally.”
Robert rubbed his forehead. “I asked about a number.”
“At brunch.”
“Because the person connected to the number was standing six feet away.”
“You could have asked Ethan privately.”
“I have asked him privately for three months.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Robert looked at the hotel print of the rowboat.
“No,” he said. “It isn’t.”
Dana let the silence sit between them.
“What do you want to happen now?” she asked.
“I want the real books.”
“And after that?”
“I’ll decide after that.”
“That answer worries me.”
“It’s the only answer I have.”
“I can send a preservation notice and request the company records under your investment agreement. You still hold a minority interest and an observer seat. Lee Okafor can review the financial package.”
“Call him.”
“I will. But listen to me. Canceling the transfer protects the trust. It does not solve the company’s cash problem. Their lender may react quickly.”
“They should.”
“That reaction won’t only affect Ethan and Vanessa. It will affect employees, contractors, tenants, and anyone relying on the project.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Robert stood and walked to the window. The river appeared between two buildings, flat and silver in the afternoon light.
“I built a company,” he said. “I understand payroll.”
“You built a manufacturing company in a different decade. You also had a habit of paying bills out of your own pocket when people disappointed you, then reminding them you had saved them.”
“I never reminded anyone.”
Dana did not answer.
Robert watched a delivery truck reverse toward a loading dock.
“I want Lee there tomorrow morning,” he said.
“I’ll ask him.”
“Not ask.”
“Robert, Lee has clients.”
“Then find someone else.”
“That tone is part of the problem.”
He closed his eyes.
Dana’s voice softened. “I’m not defending what happened at the house. But I am telling you that your family and your money have been tangled together for years. Pulling one strand may bring down more than you intend.”
“They threw me out.”
“Yes.”
“My son stood there.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re concerned about my tone.”
“I’m concerned about what you do next.”
Robert looked at the photograph.
“So am I,” he said.
At the mansion, Vanessa stood in the foyer staring at the cancellation alert until the screen dimmed.
Ethan closed the front doors.
The room became quieter, but not private. The caterers still had to remove warming trays from the kitchen. His assistant, Maya, had not moved from beside the staircase.
“You can go,” Ethan told her.
Maya glanced at Vanessa.
“I said you can go.”
“I need your signature on the revised vendor schedule.”
“Tomorrow.”
“The concrete invoice is due tomorrow morning.”
“Then put it on my desk.”
“It’s already on your desk.”
Ethan turned toward her.
Maya lowered her eyes. “I’ll send it again.”
She left through the side hall.
Vanessa walked to the console table and set down her phone. Her fingers missed the edge by an inch. She caught it before it fell.
“Call him,” she said.
“I did.”
“Call again.”
“He isn’t answering.”
“Use someone else’s phone.”
“He’ll know.”
“Then go to the hotel.”
Ethan loosened his tie. “We don’t know where he went.”
“He uses the same three hotels.”
“He was carrying two suitcases, Vanessa. This isn’t a scheduling problem.”
“No. It’s an eight-hundred-thousand-dollar problem.”
He stared at her.
She turned away first.
The house smelled faintly of lemon glaze and coffee. Through the open dining-room doors, half-filled glasses remained on the table. A linen napkin had fallen beneath one chair. Someone’s lipstick marked the rim of a water glass.
Ethan began gathering plates.
“What are you doing?” Vanessa asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Leave those.”
He stacked two dessert plates, then a third. The porcelain knocked sharply together.
Vanessa crossed the room and took them from him. “Stop.”
He let go.
She placed the plates on the table. “The lender tests the equity covenant tomorrow at four.”
“I know.”
“If the transfer isn’t there—”
“I know.”
“They can freeze the construction account.”
“I know.”
“Then stop saying you know and do something.”
Ethan pulled out a chair and sat down.
Vanessa remained standing. “You told me the authorization was complete.”
“I thought it was.”
“You said he approved it Friday.”
“He approved the amount.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“I didn’t know he would call Westbridge.”
“You should have removed Westbridge from the sheet.”
Ethan looked at her slowly.
Vanessa’s mouth tightened. “Don’t.”
“You changed the sheet.”
“You asked me to update the presentation.”
“I asked you to make it readable.”
“You asked me not to scare the board before the transfer.”
“I didn’t tell you to call a withdrawn tenant committed.”
“You knew exactly what the deck said.”
“I knew what you said it said.”
Vanessa laughed once. It sounded nothing like amusement.
May you like
Outside, a catering van started in the drive.
She crossed to the window and watched two workers carry crates toward it. One of them said something to the other. Both looked toward the house.
