Chương 7
“Yes.”
“Can you document every step you took?”
“Yes.”
“Can you send the image to an independent forensic examiner without accessing it again?”
“Yes, but that costs actual money.”
“I’ll pay.”
Noah glanced at her.
She opened her purse and removed a business card. “Contact this firm in the morning. Ask for Dana Yoon. Tell her I need a privileged preliminary assessment.”
Caleb read the card. “You trust her?”
“I trust her invoices.”
While they prepared the transfer, Noah wandered toward the kitchen. The cat opened one eye from the printer box. He scratched beneath its chin and found a chipped mug in the sink bearing the logo of Sterling Automotive.
“You have one of our mugs.”
Caleb glanced over. “You left it here.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
“You drank coffee from it every morning for eight months.”
Noah turned the mug in his hands. A grease mark stained the handle. He could not remember living here well enough to have a mug.
After his mother’s death, he had spent a year moving between apartments, hotels, and friends’ couches while Richard described each move to relatives as a treatment arrangement. Caleb had let him sleep in the room where the bicycle now hung. Noah remembered the mattress on the floor and the bakery trucks arriving at four in the morning. He remembered almost nothing else.
Claire came into the kitchen.
“You lived here?”
“For a while.”
“You told me you were at the Connecticut house.”
“Dad told you that.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“You didn’t answer the last time.”
“When?”
“The night he threw me out.”
Her eyes shifted to Caleb, who was deliberately focused on the monitor.
“Dad said you left after an argument.”
“He put my clothes in trash bags and told the driver to take me to a hotel.”
“What argument?”
“I asked to see the police file.”
Claire leaned against the counter. “He told me you refused to come home because the house triggered you.”
“It did trigger me. Mostly when he was in it.”
She looked at the Sterling mug. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought you believed him.”
“I thought you were avoiding me.”
“I was.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“It felt the same.”
Caleb cleared his throat from the other room. “The encrypted image is uploading. It will take twenty minutes.”
Claire checked the time. “I need to go home.”
Noah nodded.
“You can come with me,” she said.
He looked toward the monitor. “Your husband doesn’t want me there.”
“Daniel is worried.”
“About the children?”
“About you being unpredictable.”
“I threw one vase.”
Claire stared at him.
He rubbed his face. “That sounded bad.”
“Yes.”
“I won’t break anything.”
“That isn’t the only concern.”
“What is?”
She hesitated. “You have disappeared before.”
“I was twenty.”
“You went missing for nine days.”
“I was in Montreal.”
“No one knew that.”
“Caleb knew.”
Caleb lifted a hand without turning around.
Claire’s mouth tightened. “I had police calling hospitals. Dad said you were punishing us.”
“I didn’t know he hadn’t told you.”
“Why would he know?”
“He sent me there.”
The apartment became quiet except for the computer fans.
Claire stepped away from the counter. “What?”
“He said the press had learned about the fight at the station. He told me to stay at the Montreal apartment until Graham handled it.”
“We don’t have a Montreal apartment.”
“Vale Advisory did.”
Claire stared at him as though trying to decide whether the lie belonged to Noah or their father.
“He called me every night,” Noah continued. “He said you knew.”
She sat at the small kitchen table. One leg of the chair was uneven and clicked against the floor.
Caleb turned around. “I have emails.”
Noah looked at him.
“You forwarded me travel details because you wanted me to send your laptop. They came from Graham’s office.”
Claire held out her hand. “Show me.”
The emails contained instructions from Graham’s assistant, a reservation under an alias, and a driver pickup at the airport. One sentence read: Mr. Sterling requests that Noah avoid personal contact until communications exposure is contained.
Claire read it twice.
“He isolated you,” she said.
Noah leaned against the sink. “He managed me.”
“That’s what he calls everything.”
The upload completed at 12:47 a.m.
Claire left with a copy of the payment packet and the contact information for the forensic examiner. Before going down the stairs, she faced Noah in the dim hallway.
“Do not contact the board yet.”
“Why?”
“Because right now we have disturbing messages and a hidden payment, but no proof the mechanical problem caused the crash or that Dad knowingly lied afterward.”
“He knew enough.”
“I agree.”
The words surprised him.
She continued, “But agreement is not proof. If you accuse him publicly before we understand the amendment, he will say you are grieving, unstable, and trying to disrupt the sale. Some people will believe him because you just shattered a vase.”
Noah looked at the stairwell wall. “I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She took a breath. “I’m not saying do nothing. I’m saying give me until tomorrow evening.”
“For what?”
“To find the amendment and figure out why Mom wanted me to see it.”
“You’ll tell Dad.”
“No.”
“You always tell him.”
“Not this time.”
He studied her face. “How do I know?”
“You don’t.”
It was the most honest answer she could have given.
Elena had fallen asleep in the driver’s seat with her arms folded. When Noah tapped the window, she woke instantly and unlocked the doors.
“Did you solve everything?” she asked.
“No.”
“Good. I was worried it would be unrealistic.”
He got in.
Her phone showed seven missed calls from the mansion, four from Richard, two from Graham, and one from Martin. There was also a message from the head of household administration asking her not to report for work until contacted by Human Resources.
Elena read it, then placed the phone facedown.
May you like
“I’m sorry,” Noah said.
“I told you to save those.”
