Chương 4
Ben laughed once.
It was an ugly, quiet sound.
Father James watched him carefully.
Ben said, “I called six times that week.”
Tessa nodded.
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I saw your name.”
“On her phone?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the calls?”
Tessa looked toward the closed door.
“Sometimes Olivia declined them.”
Ben’s throat tightened.
“Sometimes?”
“She blocked your number.”
The room became very still.
Lucy said to Father James, “I got twenty-seven.”
He told her, “That’s excellent.”
“There’s more.”
“I was afraid of that.”
Ben closed his eyes.
His mother’s phone.
The gray case with the crack near the charging port.
She had complained that Face ID had been designed by twenty-five-year-olds with good eyesight.
He had given her that phone.
He had called it.
Olivia had held it.
“Why?” he asked.
Tessa shook her head.
“I didn’t know then.”
“Do you know now?”
“I know some of it.”
“Tell me.”
Tessa hesitated.
“Mrs. Hale had found something.”
Olivia’s voice came from the doorway.
“Enough.”
Everyone turned.
She stood there without her veil.
At some point she had removed it. Her blonde hair remained perfect underneath, which seemed offensive in a way Ben could not explain.
Richard stood several feet behind her.
Ben said, “I closed that door.”
Olivia entered anyway.
“You are letting an employee with a grievance tell you a story about a dying woman who was taking morphine.”
Tessa stiffened.
Father James rose.
“Olivia.”
“No, Father, please. Everyone has decided I’m a monster in less than ten minutes.”
“No one has decided anything,” Ben said.
She looked at him.
“You stopped our wedding.”
“Yes.”
“In front of everyone.”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re interrogating me while the entire ballroom is watching.”
“I’m asking whether you blocked my number on my mother’s phone.”
Olivia stared at him.
Ben waited.
She looked toward Tessa.
There it was again.
That same measuring glance.
“She was upsetting you.”
Ben felt his stomach drop.
“So you did.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From my mother?”
“From that cycle.”
“What cycle?”
“You would call. She would insult me. You would defend me. Then you’d spend two days hating yourself because you’d raised your voice to a sick woman.”
“That was mine to deal with.”
“You weren’t dealing with it.”
“You blocked my number.”
“She asked for space.”
Tessa said, “She did not.”
Olivia spun toward her.
“You were cleaning bathrooms while we were having family conversations.”
Tessa flinched as though struck.
Ben said quietly, “You need to stop speaking to her like that.”
Olivia’s eyes widened.
“You’re choosing her?”
“I’m choosing the person who answers questions.”
Richard said, “Benjamin.”
Ben turned on him.
“Did you know?”
Richard’s expression changed.
That was enough to make Ben afraid.
“Know what?”
“About the calls.”
“No.”
“Do you believe her?”
Richard looked at his daughter.
Then at Tessa.
Then away.
“I believe this conversation should take place after everyone has calmed down.”
Ben nodded slowly.
“That’s what people say when they don’t like the answer that’s already in the room.”
Richard’s jaw hardened.
“I have treated you like a son.”
“And I’ve treated you like a father. So answer me.”
“I didn’t know about Margaret’s phone.”
“Did you know Olivia was keeping me away from her?”
Richard’s silence lasted two seconds too long.
Olivia said, “Dad.”
Richard looked furious now.
Not at Ben.
At the situation.
“At the time,” he said, “I understood there had been a serious deterioration in the relationship.”
“From who?”
“Olivia.”
Ben rubbed a hand over his face.
Lucy had begun arranging petals in a line on the leather chair.
Father James stood beside her, making himself useful by being quiet.
“What did my mother find?” Ben asked Tessa.
Olivia said, “This is ridiculous.”
Tessa took a breath.
“A letter.”
Ben looked at her.
“What letter?”
“She found a letter Olivia had written.”
Olivia’s entire posture changed.
Ben noticed because he had been watching her for almost four years.
She became very still when she was preparing to lie.
“What letter?” he repeated.
Tessa said, “I never read all of it.”
Olivia laughed.
“There we are.”
Tessa’s cheeks colored.
“Mrs. Hale showed me the first page.”
“Convenient.”
“What did it say?” Ben asked.
Tessa looked at him.
“It was addressed to the foundation.”
Ben knew which foundation.
The Hale Family Arts Foundation had been started by his parents when he was sixteen, mostly because Margaret believed wealthy people who said they loved a city should occasionally prove it without putting their names on buildings.
Olivia had joined its board eighteen months earlier.
Ben’s mother had opposed the appointment.
At the time, he had called that opposition petty.
“What about it?”
Tessa shook her head.
“I don’t know. Something about a donor.”
Olivia said, “That is enough.”
Ben looked at her.
“What donor?”
“There was no donor issue.”
“Tessa?”
Tessa swallowed.
“Mrs. Hale said Olivia had lied about a pledge.”
The memory arrived with embarrassing clarity.
Three months before Margaret died, Olivia had announced that North Coast Development had committed eight hundred thousand dollars to the foundation’s youth arts program.
It had been the largest new pledge of the year.
The foundation expanded the program on the strength of it.
Olivia received a standing ovation at the annual dinner.
Ben had been proud of her.
His mother had not clapped.
Later, Margaret had said, “Money that arrives with that much choreography usually has somewhere else to be.”
Ben had accused her of jealousy.
He could still see her face after he said it.
Not angry.
Tired.
He looked at Olivia.
“The North Coast pledge?”
“That had nothing to do with your mother.”
“Was it real?”
“Yes.”
“Did they pay?”
Olivia hesitated.
“Not yet.”
“They committed eight months ago.”
“Corporate pledges get delayed.”
Ben ran a construction and design firm. He understood delayed payments.
He also understood people answering adjacent questions.
“Did they sign a pledge agreement?”
Olivia’s lips pressed together.
“This is not a board meeting.”
“No.”
May you like
He glanced toward the ballroom.
“It was supposed to be my wedding.”
