Chương 10
Maya waited.
Helen looked at her.
“I’m not going to become your witness because you own my workplace.”
The sentence stung.
Maya nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
Helen seemed surprised.
Maya picked up her sandwich.
“I’m sorry.”
She took another bite.
Helen stood there for a moment.
Then she sat at the island.
“Victoria knew Grant was afraid of you.”
Maya stopped chewing.
Helen looked at the countertop.
“He talked about you here. More than once.”
“What did he say?”
“That you were obsessive. Angry. That you didn’t understand the accounting.”
“That sounds like him.”
“He also said you wouldn’t stop.”
Maya swallowed.
“Did Victoria tell him to fire me?”
“I don’t know.”
“We have her email.”
Helen looked up.
Maya explained the line.
Get rid of her before she turns this into a crusade.
Helen sighed.
“That sounds like her.”
“Then why are you protecting her?”
“I’m not.”
“It feels like it.”
“I worked for her twenty-three years.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is if you’re an adult.”
Maya leaned back.
Helen’s face had hardened.
“She can be cruel,” Helen said. “She can also sit with a dying dog for eleven hours because she won’t let him be alone. She remembers my granddaughter’s birthday. She forgot my birthday six years in a row. She fired Wright nine times. She paid his mother’s hospital deductible without telling him. She humiliated you. She also spent two months trying to get Grant to enter treatment for a problem nobody at the company knew he had.”
Maya stared.
“What problem?”
Helen looked away.
“I’ve already said too much.”
“Alcohol?”
“No.”
“Drugs?”
“I’m done.”
Maya felt anger return.
“Helen.”
The older woman stood.
“You own the refrigerator. You don’t own my memory.”
Maya went still.
Helen walked out.
Maya remained at the island with the sandwich in her hand.
A minute later Wright entered.
He opened a cabinet, found a bag of pretzels, and stopped when he saw Maya’s face.
“What happened?”
“I was an ass.”
He considered.
“Before or after lunch?”
“During.”
“Efficient.”
Maya laughed once.
“I asked Helen about Victoria.”
“That’ll do it.”
“You know?”
“I know not to.”
He opened the pretzels.
Maya looked at him.
“Was Grant sick?”
Wright’s expression changed almost imperceptibly.
Maya noticed.
“You know.”
“I know he died.”
“Everybody knows that.”
Wright ate a pretzel.
“Then we’re caught up.”
Maya stared.
“You all do this.”
“Do what?”
“Protect them.”
Wright set the bag down.
“Sometimes.”
“Why?”
“Because employment is complicated.”
“He’s dead.”
“Employment isn’t.”
Maya frowned.
Wright leaned against the counter.
“You came in this morning thinking ownership changed everybody’s loyalties at eight forty-two.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did a little.”
Maya looked away.
He continued.
“People here aren’t furniture. Some liked him. Some hated him. Most did both depending on the day.”
“Helen said something similar.”
“Then Helen was right.”
“I hate when that happens.”
“Get used to it.”
Maya looked toward the service hallway where Helen had disappeared.
“I apologized.”
“That helps.”
“She still left.”
“She’s working.”
“Oh.”
Wright picked up the pretzels again.
“Not everything is a dramatic exit.”
Maya gave him a tired look.
“That should be written over the front door.”
“Would improve the property.”
That afternoon, Maya called her manager and explained that her personal legal matter might affect Monday.
She did not explain the mansion.
She said there had been “a property transfer and an altercation.”
Her manager, Denise, was quiet for three seconds.
“Are you in jail?”
“No.”
“Then log in Monday.”
Maya smiled.
“Okay.”
“You laughing?”
“A little.”
“Good. Whatever rich-person nonsense you’re doing, I still need the vendor variance file.”
Maya looked around the library where she had taken the call.
“Rich-person nonsense is exactly right.”
“You inherit something?”
“No.”
“Win something?”
“Kind of the opposite.”
“Don’t care. Monday.”
“Yes, boss.”
After the call, Maya sat alone for a while.
The library smelled like dust and leather.
She ran a finger along a shelf.
Most of the books looked unread.
One had a receipt sticking out of it from 2019.
Maya pulled it free.
It was for printer ink.
Nothing profound.
She put it back.
Around four, Rachel returned from a conference call with an expression Maya had learned to distrust.
“What?”
“Victoria filed for a temporary restraining order.”
Maya laughed.
“Against me?”
“Against transfer-related disposal of personal property and access to allegedly privileged documents.”
“Oh.”
“She also included the physical incident.”
“Of course.”
“Her attorney did not request that the deed be reversed today.”
“That seems important.”
“It is.”
“So she knows she lost.”
Rachel sat opposite her.
“She knows title transferred.”
Maya looked toward the window.
“So what happens?”
“We preserve disputed material. No selling or destroying personal property. Nothing we weren’t already doing.”
“And the office?”
“Do not enter it.”
“I promised.”
“I’m reminding you.”
“When’s the hearing?”
“Tuesday morning.”
Maya blinked.
“I work Tuesday.”
Rachel stared.
“I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds insane.”
“I have a job.”
“You also have litigation.”
“I had litigation yesterday. I still had a job.”
Rachel rubbed her forehead.
“We’ll request remote appearance if appropriate, but you may need to attend.”
Maya groaned.
Her phone buzzed.
A text from her mother.
Did she leave?
Maya typed yes.
Three dots appeared immediately.
Then:
Good. Now leave too.
Maya smiled.
“I’m sleeping here tonight.”
Rachel looked up.
“What?”
“I think I should.”
“Why?”
“It’s my house.”
“That is not a reason.”
“I don’t want it sitting empty.”
“There are guards.”
“I want to know what I own.”
Rachel studied her.
“Are you afraid Victoria will come back?”
Maya considered.
“No.”
“Then why?”
Maya looked around the library.
“I spent seventeen months fighting over numbers attached to this place. I should at least spend one night finding out if I hate the actual building.”
Rachel leaned back.
“You’re going to hate it.”
“Probably.”
At six thirty, Helen asked what Maya wanted for dinner.
Maya said cereal.
Helen looked offended.
“There are sea scallops.”
“I don’t want sea scallops.”
May you like
“They expire tomorrow.”
“Freeze them.”
