Chương 5
“It proves your mother said she told Emily what ‘your DNA test proved.’ It proves you responded that you never took one. It may prove more in context. It does not, by itself, prove who created the document.”
Daniel leaned back.
Emily watched his jaw tighten.
Priya noticed.
“That distinction will matter,” she said.
“So we let her deny it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re telling us the truth isn’t enough.”
“I’m telling you truth and evidence are related, not identical.”
Emily liked her.
Daniel clearly did not.
At least not yet.
Priya asked to see every message between Margaret and Emily for the previous six months.
Emily’s stomach turned.
There were eighty-seven.
Most looked harmless.
Where are you?
Did Lucy sleep?
Daniel says you’re tired.
I can stop by.
You should let family help.
The cruelty lived in accumulation.
You’ve always seemed unusually private about the timing.
Daniel was traveling so much around then.
She has your eyes, I suppose.
Interesting that no one in the Mercer family had dark eyes as babies.
Have you completed all of her medical history forms accurately?
Sometimes uncertainty is worse than truth.
Priya read them without comment.
Daniel became quieter with each one.
At message sixty-two, he stood and walked away from the table.
Emily watched him through the laptop reflection.
He went to the sink and filled a glass with water.
When he returned, Priya said, “Mr. Mercer, I need you to understand something.”
“Daniel.”
“All right. Daniel. If this becomes a dispute involving your employer, your mother’s role as chair, or the use of company resources, your interests may separate from your wife’s.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“How?”
“Emily may need independent advice.”
“She has it.”
Priya paused.
“I currently represent both of you for the limited purpose we discussed. That can change.”
Daniel looked at Emily.
She looked back.
For the first time since Margaret’s accusation, Daniel seemed frightened in a way that had nothing to do with paternity.
He had assumed standing beside Emily made them one legal object.
It did not.
Marriage did not erase individual risk.
“Okay,” he said.
Priya asked for the recording.
Then the physical envelope.
Then photographs of the report where it had been found.
Then the cashier’s checks.
When the call ended, Daniel closed the laptop.
“I hate her.”
“Priya?”
“No.”
Emily looked toward him.
He stared at the blank screen.
“My mother.”
Emily was tired enough to be irritated.
“That’s convenient.”
Daniel’s head came up.
“What?”
“She’s been doing this to me for months, and now you get to hate her in one morning.”
His mouth opened.
Emily stood.
“I’m going upstairs.”
“Em.”
“I’m not trying to punish you.”
“It feels a little like you are.”
She turned.
“Maybe I am.”
Daniel went still.
Emily hated the honesty of it.
“I’m angry,” she said. “And not all of it belongs to her.”
His eyes lowered.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I’m starting to.”
She waited.
He looked at the report lying inside a plastic sleeve Priya had told them to use only after Daniel admitted he had already folded it twice.
“I made you manage her because I didn’t want to.”
Emily said nothing.
Daniel swallowed.
“When she criticized the wedding, I said ignore it. When she kept showing up after Lucy was born, I said she was excited. When she commented on your job, I said she respected teachers in her own way.”
Emily’s mouth tightened.
“She asked me once if I planned to keep working after we had children because ‘children need at least one parent whose career is optional.’”
Daniel shut his eyes.
“I didn’t know that.”
“I told you.”
He opened them.
“You said she made a weird comment about work.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“Because I edited it.”
He looked confused.
Emily gripped the back of the chair.
“I edited her for you. I made it smaller before I told you because I knew you’d make it smaller anyway.”
Daniel stared at her.
That landed harder than anything else.
Emily went upstairs.
For the next week, their life became embarrassingly normal around the edges.
Lucy had a pediatric appointment.
Daniel forgot to buy diapers.
Emily’s department chair emailed to ask whether she planned to return for the spring semester.
A drain in the upstairs bathroom started making a bubbling noise.
The dog next door barked every afternoon at four.
Margaret did not call.
That worried Daniel more than if she had.
On Wednesday, Mercer Development’s chief operating officer asked Daniel to come to his office.
Daniel knew before he arrived that Margaret had acted.
Victor Haines closed the door.
“You and your mother having a problem?”
Daniel sat.
“Why?”
“Because she asked for a review of your project authority.”
Daniel felt the inside of his chest go cold.
“What does that mean?”
Victor frowned.
“You know what it means.”
“I want to hear what she told you.”
“She didn’t tell me anything. She directed internal audit to verify approval procedures on the Hartford acquisitions.”
Daniel stared at him.
The acquisitions were clean.
He knew they were clean.
But an audit did not have to discover wrongdoing to damage someone.
It only had to discover inconvenience.
“Is this standard?” Daniel asked.
“No.”
“Does the board know?”
“Not yet.”
Daniel looked through the glass wall toward the bullpen.
People walked past carrying coffee and laptops.
Nobody looked at him.
He wondered how long that would last.
Victor leaned forward.
“Daniel, I’m going to ask you something, and I need you not to answer like the founder’s son.”
“My father wasn’t the founder.”
“Fine. Founder’s grandson. Whatever. Is there something I need to know?”
Daniel thought of Priya’s instructions.
Do not make accusations at work without evidence.
“There’s a family dispute.”
Victor leaned back.
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
“I haven’t done anything improper.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“My mother may be using the company to put pressure on me.”
May you like
Victor’s eyes changed.
There.
