Chương 10
“Were you living under a false identity?”
“Did Weston Kade remove you from his home?”
“Are the Marchettis returning to New York?”
“Is there going to be a war over the ports?”
The last question was shouted with embarrassing enthusiasm.
Odalys stopped.
Miriam murmured, “Keep walking.”
Odalys looked toward the reporter who had asked about war. He was young, wet-haired, and holding a microphone with the logo of a business channel.
“There will be no war,” she said.
“Does Mr. Kade agree?”
“I don’t speak for Mr. Kade.”
“Are you taking control of Orsino Capital?”
“I am reviewing documents that should have been shown to me years ago.”
“Did you deceive Mr. Kade?”
Miriam touched her elbow.
Odalys’s face remained calm. “I lived under a name chosen for me when I was a child. The consequences of that choice are now mine to address.”
“Are you afraid of prosecution?”
“Yes,” she said.
The honesty silenced them for half a second.
She used it to reach the waiting car.
By evening, the clip had spread farther than the convoy photograph.
Some commentators praised her. Others called the answer rehearsed. One former prosecutor on cable television explained several possible charges without enough facts to support any of them. A social-media account found the obituary of the real Priya Osei and posted a photograph of her mother leaving flowers at a cemetery.
Odalys saw the image while sitting in Miriam’s office.
The dead child’s mother was sixty-three now. Her name was Abena Osei. She lived in Queens and worked as a nurse at a rehabilitation center. She had never spoken publicly about the stolen identity because she had not known it had been stolen.
Until that afternoon.
Miriam took the phone from Odalys’s hand. “Do not contact her.”
“I used her daughter’s name.”
“You were four.”
“I renewed passports as an adult.”
“Under a system created before you understood it.”
“I understood enough to avoid questions.”
“That is a matter for your lawyers. Not a grieving mother watching strangers discuss her child.”
Odalys stood and crossed to the window.
Below, the bakery employee turned chairs upside down on tables. A woman in a green coat waited near the curb while a little boy jumped over cracks in the pavement.
“I need to apologize.”
“You need to avoid making her carry your need to feel forgiven.”
The words landed hard because they were true.
Miriam came to stand beside her. “We can ask through an intermediary whether she is willing to receive a letter. Not tonight.”
Odalys nodded.
Her phone rang.
The caller identification showed WESTON.
She stared at it until the call stopped.
A message appeared.
I did not leak the photograph.
Another followed.
I know Everett froze your accounts.
Then:
Nolan has information about the dossier. He can speak with Miriam. I will not attend.
Odalys read the messages twice.
Miriam watched her face. “What does he want?”
“To help without being seen helping.”
“Very on brand.”
“He says he won’t attend.”
“That may be the first useful decision he has made.”
Odalys typed nothing.
A fourth message appeared.
Are you safe?
Her thumb hovered above the screen.
She wanted to answer no. She wanted to tell him that safety had become a word used by men while locking elevators and opening doors into storms. She wanted to ask whether he had slept, whether he had poured out the whisky, whether he had touched the empty side of the bed.
Instead she turned the phone facedown.
“Tell Nolan to come,” she said.
Nolan arrived forty minutes later with two phones, a laptop, and no visible security.
He paused when he saw Odalys.
She had known him as a presence near elevators, dining rooms, cars, and hospital corridors. He remembered everyone’s preferred route to an airport and never ate during long events. Once, after Weston had been delayed in Washington, Nolan sat through a terrible school fundraiser with Odalys because she had promised her studio assistant she would attend. He bought three raffle tickets and won a basket of scented candles he did not want.
Now he looked at her stomach, then corrected himself.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For which part?”
His mouth tightened. “I have a list.”
Miriam motioned him toward the conference table. “Start with the dossier.”
Nolan presented the courier records, print-service connection, and payment trail. He explained that Everett’s network had assembled the file and timed the delivery. He also showed them the submitted death record that triggered the freezing of Odalys’s accounts.
“Submitted by a compliance contractor used by Orsino Capital,” he said.
Miriam copied the information.
“Why would Everett expose the identity he created?” Odalys asked.
“To force you into the succession process,” Nolan said. “Possibly also to provoke Weston into moving against Orsino.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Because you stopped him?”
Nolan considered the question. “Because he stopped himself after I explained that rage was not evidence.”
Odalys looked down.
Miriam said, “We don’t need character rehabilitation. Continue.”
Nolan almost smiled. “There is another issue. Kade Maritime has experienced labor disruptions at two terminals. Dominic Rane believes Orsino arranged them. We found payments to organizers through a shell vendor connected to neither company.”
“Who controls it?” Miriam asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
Odalys thought of Everett’s warning that Weston would move against the family interests. “Everett benefits if Weston retaliates.”
“Yes.”
“So does someone inside Kade who wants retaliation.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic.”
“We are examining him.”
Nolan closed the laptop. “There is also the Lisbon contact.”
Odalys went still.
Miriam looked at her. “What Lisbon contact?”
Nolan’s gaze remained on Odalys. “Three encrypted email exchanges between her and an account linked to Everett. The last occurred during a trip with Weston.”
Odalys sat back.
She had known the past would become evidence eventually. She had not expected it to enter the room in Nolan’s careful voice.
“What did the messages contain?” Miriam asked.
“We don’t have them.”
“I do,” Odalys said.
Nolan’s attention sharpened.
May you like
Miriam waited.
Odalys rubbed her thumb over the edge of the table. “Everett contacted me before I met Weston. He said my parents had been killed because Victor Kade wanted control of a shipping route. He said Weston had inherited records that could prove it.”
