Chương 12
Maya noticed he had ordered coffee but had not touched it.
She slid into the seat across from him.
“You look nervous.”
“I am.”
“That’s reassuring.”
He glanced at the laminated menu.
“I haven’t been here in twenty years.”
“Did the family office approve?”
“Barely.”
Maya smiled.
A waitress came over.
Richard ordered eggs.
Maya ordered pancakes.
Neither discussed paternity for the first fifteen minutes.
Richard complained that the coffee was terrible.
Maya said her mother would have liked it.
He went quiet.
She regretted saying it.
Then he smiled.
“She always did.”
Maya looked at him.
“You remember?”
“She used to say good coffee made people boring.”
“That sounds like her.”
“She said bad coffee gave everyone something to complain about.”
Maya laughed.
Richard looked down.
For a moment grief sat between them without belonging more to either person.
Maya said, “Tell me one thing about her I don’t know.”
Richard thought.
“She hated elevators.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“She did.”
“She lived on the sixth floor.”
“She hated elevators and refused to admit it.”
Maya stared.
Richard smiled faintly.
“She would take the stairs when she thought nobody noticed.”
Maya remembered Elena arriving breathless at Maya’s first apartment after complaining that the elevator smelled strange.
“Oh my God.”
Richard laughed.
Maya did too.
Then she stopped.
“This is weird.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t like liking things you tell me.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
“No.”
He stirred his coffee.
Maya watched him.
“Why didn’t you look for her?”
Richard’s face changed.
The easy moment ended.
“I did once.”
“When?”
“2006.”
Maya blinked.
“What happened?”
“I hired someone quietly.”
“Your father knew?”
“He found out.”
“And?”
“He gave me a copy of a document that appeared to show Elena had married and moved overseas.”
“Was it real?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you still have it?”
“No.”
Maya leaned back.
“You believed him again.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Richard looked at his hands.
“Because by then Adrian was six. His mother and I were trying again. I had an excuse for every year I let pass.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He nodded.
“I was afraid Elena would tell me she wanted nothing to do with me.”
Maya stared at him.
There it was.
Not business.
Not Charles.
Pride.
Richard continued.
“And I was afraid she would tell me she did.”
Maya frowned.
“How are those both bad?”
“If she hated me, I had lost her. If she didn’t, I had to explain what I had done.”
Maya looked away.
The waitress refilled their coffee.
Neither spoke until she left.
Richard said, “I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking whether I can know you.”
Maya looked at him.
“That sounds simple.”
“I know it isn’t.”
“What if I don’t want your family?”
“You already have Adrian.”
She almost smiled.
“That happened fast.”
“He likes you.”
“He complains about almonds.”
“He’s always been difficult.”
Maya traced the edge of her water glass.
“What happens with Victoria?”
Richard’s expression closed.
“That’s between Victoria and me.”
“Good answer.”
“We’re separating permanently.”
Maya looked up.
“I’m not doing that to your marriage.”
“No.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
He took a breath.
“Our marriage had problems before you appeared. What happened exposed something I can’t live with.”
Maya thought about Victoria sitting at the conference table saying she had been afraid.
“People can do terrible things because they’re afraid.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t mean they stop being terrible.”
“No.”
“Are you going to destroy her publicly?”
Richard looked surprised.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I loved her.”
“Past tense?”
He stared at his coffee.
“I don’t know yet.”
Maya nodded.
That answer felt more honest than certainty.
Three months passed.
The internet got bored.
It always did.
Maya’s clients returned one at a time.
Some never did.
Martin Beck hired her for two additional projects, possibly out of loyalty and possibly because she had saved him from bidding seven figures on a painting with undisclosed restoration.
Claire Morgan testified in a civil deposition after Maya filed a limited claim against Victoria for the assault.
Maya did not ask for millions.
She asked for her medical costs, documented lost work tied directly to the incident, and a public correction of Victoria’s claim that Elena had stolen the pendant.
Victoria agreed.
Her statement was brief.
Eleanor Vale had given the pendant to Elena Reyes in 2001. I knew this and spoke falsely during the confrontation. Elena Reyes did not steal it.
Maya read the statement once.
Then she closed the browser.
It did not repair Elena.
But it removed one lie.
That mattered.
Richard commissioned an independent review of the Vale family archives.
Maya insisted the review not become an excuse to publish private information about her mother.
They argued about it.
Their first real argument lasted forty minutes.
Richard wanted transparency.
Maya wanted boundaries.
“You don’t get to clean your conscience by turning my mother into a report,” she told him.
He became angry.
“So we hide what my father did?”
“No. We disclose what he did without publishing every medical appointment she had while pregnant.”
“That information establishes the extent of surveillance.”
“It also belongs to a dead woman who spent her life trying to protect some privacy.”
Richard paced.
“This affects more than us.”
“I know.”
“My father controlled employees. He pressured people.”
“Then investigate those cases.”
“What if Elena’s documents prove a pattern?”
“Use them with my permission.”
“They’re in the family archive.”
“Some are. Her life isn’t.”
Richard stopped.
Maya looked at him.
“This is what you do.”
“What?”
“You decide the larger purpose makes your choice automatically correct.”
His face hardened.
“That’s not fair.”
“No. It’s familiar.”
He stared at her.
Then he walked out.
For two days they did not speak.
Adrian called Maya.
“I’m not mediating.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“Good.”
“He’s impossible.”
“I know.”
“He thinks because he finally wants the truth everyone should hand him all of it.”
“I know.”
Maya frowned.
May you like
“You could disagree once.”
“I disagree with him constantly. That’s why I recognize it.”
