Chương 13
Lauren left.
The legal consequences moved slowly.
That was another insult to drama.
There was no judge striking a gavel days later.
No instant transfer of millions.
No miraculous confession.
Attorneys reviewed Daniel’s estate, the family trust, old corporate agreements, tax filings, insurance policies, and correspondence.
Some documents helped Lauren.
Others did not.
The confidentiality agreement complicated things but did not erase Mia’s existence.
Daniel’s estate had closed years earlier, which created procedural questions Nathan did not pretend to understand.
Nathan hired separate personal counsel so decisions involving Mia could not be mixed casually with his duties to the company.
The board formed an independent committee to review whether Eleanor had used company resources to manage a private family matter.
She had.
Not as much as Nathan feared.
More than she should have.
Eleanor resigned from the Cole Meridian board before the review was complete.
Nathan asked her not to.
That surprised them both.
“Why?” she said.
“Because resigning is easier than answering questions.”
She stared at him.
“You think I should stay and be humiliated?”
“I think you should stay until the committee decides what happened.”
“You sound like your father.”
Nathan smiled slightly.
“That must be terrible for you.”
Eleanor almost smiled back.
She remained.
Three weeks later the committee concluded that Eleanor had improperly involved two family-office employees and one company security contractor in matters related to Lauren.
There was no evidence she had committed a crime.
There was plenty of evidence she had behaved badly.
She stepped down from her board role anyway.
This time Nathan did not stop her.
Public attention eventually shifted.
It always did.
For several days, Mia’s name circulated despite every effort to protect it.
Then a celebrity divorce happened.
A senator resigned.
A video of a dog riding a city bus appeared online and accumulated millions of views.
The world moved on.
Lauren did not.
Her manager restored her hours after an attorney called.
She hated that a lawyer had been necessary.
She also enjoyed making the manager nervous.
“I’m a bad person,” she told Nathan over coffee.
“No, you’re not.”
“I enjoyed watching him sweat.”
“That’s not a crime.”
“I ordered pie while he apologized.”
“That might be.”
Their relationship changed in small increments.
Nathan stopped offering solutions before asking.
Lauren stopped assuming every offer was a trap.
Sometimes they still got it wrong.
When Nathan suggested paying the remaining balance on Lauren’s car, she did not speak to him for two days.
When Lauren accused him of treating Mia like a charity project because he bought her an expensive tablet, Nathan became angry and told her she was determined to interpret everything badly.
They argued in her kitchen while Mia watched television in the next room.
Lauren told him to leave.
He did.
An hour later, Nathan realized the tablet had been too much.
Two hours after that, Lauren realized the accusation had been unfair.
Neither called.
The next morning Mia texted him from Lauren’s phone.
Mom says youre both being stupid.
Nathan replied:
Your mother is right.
Then:
Please don’t tell her I said that.
Mia sent back six laughing emojis.
Lauren called thirty seconds later.
“You’re corrupting my child.”
“Technically she contacted me.”
“She’s eight.”
“She has initiative.”
Lauren sighed.
“I was unfair.”
“So was I.”
A pause.
“You can come over.”
“I have a meeting.”
“Fine.”
“I can cancel it.”
“Do not cancel meetings because we had an argument.”
Nathan smiled.
“See? Controlling.”
“Goodbye, Nathan.”
She hung up.
The tablet went back.
Mia got a less expensive one after Lauren agreed to split the cost in a way Nathan privately considered ridiculous but wisely did not say aloud.
Eleanor remained separate.
For two months, Mia did not see her.
Lauren did not forbid it.
She simply refused to rush.
Nathan supported her.
Eleanor did not.
She complained exactly once.
Nathan said, “You had eight years.”
She never complained again.
Instead she wrote Mia a letter.
Not a perfect letter.
Nathan knew because Eleanor asked him to read it, and he refused.
“This is between you and her.”
“I don’t know how to write to an eight-year-old.”
“Then write badly.”
She stared at him.
“You’ve become irritating.”
“Genetic.”
Eleanor mailed the letter to Lauren’s attorney.
Lauren read it first.
Then she gave it to Mia.
Nathan never asked what it said.
Mia told him anyway while they were building a bookshelf in Lauren’s apartment.
“She said she was sorry.”
Nathan tightened a screw.
“What did you think?”
“She uses big words.”
“That sounds like her.”
“She said she was scared.”
Nathan looked at Mia.
The girl was sorting screws into piles.
“Did that make sense?”
“Kind of.”
Mia picked up the smallest screw.
“I was scared too.”
Nathan sat on the floor.
“Yeah.”
“She was mean because she was scared?”
“Sometimes people are.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“No.”
Mia seemed satisfied.
She handed him a screw.
“You put this one in wrong.”
He looked.
She was correct.
“That’s embarrassing.”
“You’re bad at this.”
“I run a company.”
“That’s not furniture.”
“No, apparently it isn’t.”
In October, five months after the gala, Lauren agreed to let Eleanor meet Mia.
They chose a café near Central Park because neutral territory had become one of Rebecca’s favorite phrases.
Nathan was not supposed to attend.
Mia requested him.
So he sat at a table near the window and drank coffee he did not need.
Eleanor arrived early.
Of course.
She wore a gray coat and no visible jewelry except her wedding ring.
Lauren and Mia arrived six minutes late.
Eleanor stood.
Mia stopped two steps inside the café.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Eleanor did something Nathan had almost never seen her do.
She waited.
No invitation.
No instruction.
No reaching.
Mia approached when she was ready.
“Hi.”
“Hello, Mia.”
Lauren pulled out a chair.
They sat.
The first ten minutes were terrible.
Eleanor asked about school.
Mia gave one-word answers.
May you like
Lauren stirred coffee she was not drinking.
Nathan looked out the window and pretended traffic was fascinating.
