Chương 4
Not a sob.
Something closer to disgust.
Daniel looked at her.
“I should have.”
“Yes.”
“I should have called.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know.”
Rebecca stood.
“I cannot keep listening to you say that as if ignorance happened to you.”
She walked toward the kitchen.
Daniel started to rise.
Hale put one hand out.
“Give her a minute.”
Daniel almost told him to go to hell.
Instead he stayed where he was.
From the kitchen came the sound of a cabinet opening.
A glass placed on a counter.
Water running.
Ordinary movements.
Daniel remembered Rebecca used to drink water whenever she was furious because she feared saying something she could not take back.
He had teased her about it during their first year of marriage.
You hydrate aggressively, he had said.
She had laughed so hard she spilled half the glass.
That had been fourteen years ago.
Vanessa ended her call.
She stepped back into the foyer.
“My attorney is on the way.”
Hale nodded.
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
“I need to explain something.”
Daniel remained seated on the floor.
“You need to stop talking.”
“You’re going to hear facts presented in the worst possible way.”
Hale said, “Ms. Cole.”
“I’m speaking to Daniel.”
“And I’m advising you that your attorney may prefer you wait.”
Vanessa gave him a cold look.
“I’m aware.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Did you send them?”
She froze.
There it was.
Not an answer.
A pause.
Small enough that he might once have missed it.
“Daniel—”
“Did you send messages pretending to be my daughter after she was dead?”
Vanessa’s lips parted.
“I was trying to—”
Hale stood.
“Ms. Cole, I strongly recommend you wait for counsel.”
Daniel rose too.
Vanessa looked from Hale to Daniel.
Her composure cracked around the edges.
“You were about to close a four-billion-dollar transaction.”
Rebecca returned from the kitchen holding a glass of water.
Nobody noticed her until she spoke.
“Oh, good.”
Vanessa turned.
Rebecca took a sip.
“At least there was a reason.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“What did you mean?”
“I mean Daniel had spent eighteen months on that acquisition. Thousands of people were involved. Markets were watching. If he had vanished—”
“My daughter died.”
Daniel’s voice was low.
Vanessa stopped.
He took a step toward her.
“My daughter died, and you’re telling me about a transaction.”
“I’m telling you what happened.”
“No. You’re telling me why you think what you did made sense.”
“It didn’t make sense.”
“Then what happened?”
Her eyes shone.
For the first time since Daniel had known her, Vanessa looked older than thirty-three.
“I panicked.”
Rebecca laughed once.
“You had three days to calm down.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“I know.”
“You picked a dress for dinner Friday.”
Vanessa’s head turned sharply.
Rebecca lifted her phone.
“Photographs are public.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Friday evening had been the closing celebration at a private dining room in Mayfair. Vanessa had worn black then. He had thought she looked beautiful.
Rebecca had been choosing flowers for Ava’s funeral.
Daniel put one hand over his mouth.
Vanessa said, “I didn’t know she had died when Rebecca first called.”
Hale said, “Stop.”
Vanessa ignored him.
“I saw the calls during the meeting. Your phone was in my bag because you gave it to me before we went in.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
He remembered.
He always gave Vanessa his personal phone during sensitive negotiations. She screened calls, answered logistics, kept distractions away.
“You saw Rebecca calling.”
“Yes.”
“Thirty-seven times?”
“Not all at once.”
“How many before you knew?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I don’t know, Daniel.”
“How many?”
Vanessa looked at the floor.
“Seven or eight.”
Rebecca gripped the water glass.
Daniel said, “And you didn’t tell me.”
“You told me that morning you couldn’t have another family interruption.”
Rebecca’s gaze moved to Daniel.
He felt it physically.
Vanessa continued before he could speak.
“You said, ‘Unless somebody is bleeding, keep it away from me until Friday.’”
Daniel remembered that too.
Ava had called twice Wednesday because she could not find the charger for the camera he had promised she could borrow at camp.
He had been irritated.
He had said the sentence in the hotel elevator.
Vanessa had laughed.
He had laughed with her.
Rebecca set the glass on the table very carefully.
Daniel whispered, “That didn’t mean—”
“I know.”
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“I know what it didn’t mean.”
“Then why?”
“Because by the time I listened to Rebecca’s voicemail, you were already in the room with Cavanaugh and the board.”
“What did the voicemail say?”
Vanessa looked toward Rebecca.
Rebecca’s face went pale.
Daniel stepped closer.
“What did it say?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“That Ava had been hit by a car. That they were at the hospital. That you needed to call immediately.”
Daniel’s vision narrowed.
“And?”
Vanessa said nothing.
“And what?”
“There was another voicemail forty minutes later.”
Rebecca turned away.
Daniel’s voice became almost soundless.
“What did it say?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“That they were taking Ava into surgery.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
“And you let me stay in that meeting.”
“I thought—”
“You knew my child was in surgery.”
“I thought if I pulled you out before we knew—”
Daniel crossed the space between them.
Hale moved.
So did the uniformed officers.
Daniel stopped inches from Vanessa without touching her.
His hands shook.
“What was the third voicemail?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Daniel.”
“What was the third voicemail?”
Hale stepped between them.
“That’s enough.”
Daniel looked around him.
Everyone in his house knew something he did not.
He hated all of them for one irrational second.
Even Rebecca.
Especially himself.
He turned away.
The memorial photograph caught him again.
Ava smiling.
Ava always smiling in photographs because Rebecca would make absurd noises until she did.
He walked to the front door, opened it, and stepped outside.
May you like
Nobody followed immediately.
The August air was thick and warm. A landscaping crew was working three houses away. Daniel could hear the uneven whine of a leaf blower and wanted to scream at the man operating it to stop.
