Chương 7
“And tomorrow night,” Adrian added. “I’m not leaving tomorrow.”
“What about work?”
“Work will have to be frightened without me.”
Henry considered this. “Work isn’t a person.”
“No. I’ve made that mistake too.”
A small sound escaped Sophie, almost a laugh. It disappeared quickly, but the room changed around it.
Adrian slept on the floor between the two beds. No one asked him to. No one objected. Around midnight, Henry climbed down and settled beside him with a pillow and one dinosaur tucked beneath his chin.
At two, Adrian woke to the light from his phone. An email from Commonwealth Household Staffing filled the screen.
The agency had received a complaint from Celeste. She alleged unsafe working conditions, repeated instructions to impose strict discipline, and retaliation after raising concerns about Oliver’s violent behavior. She stated that Adrian had forcibly seized her wrist and prevented her from leaving the house. She requested that all communication proceed through counsel.
Attached were screenshots.
One was Adrian’s message from February: I don’t care how you do it. There need to be consequences he remembers.
Another: Stop calling me for manageable outbursts. You are the adult in the house.
A third: If he threatens the younger children again, separate him from the family until he can control himself.
Adrian sat up, careful not to wake Henry.
He remembered each message. None referred to physical discipline. None sounded defensible when isolated from the exhausted conversations around them.
A final screenshot showed Nora’s email about Celeste. Above it was Adrian’s forwarding note.
Please deal with this directly. I cannot mediate staff sensitivities from an airport.
He stared at the phrase staff sensitivities until the letters blurred.
At seven, Rebecca arrived carrying coffee and a legal pad. Her dark coat was dusted with frost. She had represented Adrian’s father, then Adrian, and treated both men with the weary disapproval of someone who knew where family confidence became family stupidity.
She viewed the security footage in the kitchen while Mrs. Alvarez made eggs no one ate.
“The video helps,” Rebecca said. “It also shows you taking her wrist.”
“I took the strap.”
“You took both.”
“Would you have preferred I ask permission?”
“No. I’m telling you what the image shows.”
She reviewed the messages and sighed.
“I never authorized physical punishment.”
“You authorized outcomes and made clear you did not want to hear about methods.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No. It is not the same thing.”
The distinction sounded less comforting each time someone made it.
Rebecca turned a page. “The agency says Celeste disclosed escalating behavior from Oliver and received instructions from you to manage it.”
“She did not disclose the strap.”
“I imagine her position will be that she never intended to use it.”
“She admitted she wanted to frighten them.”
“Was that recorded?”
“No.”
“Anyone else hear it?”
“The children. Nora may have.”
“Children can report what they heard, but do not turn them into your litigation team.”
“I know.”
Rebecca looked over her glasses. “You keep saying that.”
Adrian stood and poured coffee he did not want. “What happens now?”
“The agency investigates. The state may investigate. Your family therapist should be involved immediately. Celeste may pursue employment claims. Depending on what she says publicly, there may be reputational consequences.”
“She signed a confidentiality agreement.”
“Confidentiality agreements do not erase reports of suspected child mistreatment.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant.”
He leaned against the counter. Outside, the lawn had gone white with frost. A landscaping truck moved slowly along the neighboring road, its yellow light turning without urgency.
“What should I tell the board?” he asked.
Rebecca lowered the legal pad. “What do you want to tell your children?”
“I already spoke to them.”
“That was not my question.”
The board meeting was scheduled for Monday. Adrian was expected to lead a vote that would expand Vale Systems into Europe and require him to spend nearly half the next year abroad. For months he had described the expansion as inevitable. The company needed growth. Competitors were moving. Hundreds of employees depended on his judgment.
The language had always sounded clean until Oliver asked whether work was a person.
“I can postpone the vote,” Adrian said.
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do not make a grand promise because you are guilty.”
“I’m not.”
“You are wearing yesterday’s shirt and considering restructuring a public company before breakfast.”
“It’s private.”
“That is the least relevant correction you’ve ever made.”
Nora entered and stopped when she saw Rebecca.
“This is Rebecca Sloan,” Adrian said. “My attorney.”
Nora’s face changed.
“Not to question you,” he added.
Rebecca stood. “I represent Adrian, not the household and not you. You should understand that before we speak.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No one has accused you of wrongdoing,” Rebecca said. “But you may be interviewed by the agency or the state. Tell the truth. Keep any messages or notes. Do not coordinate your account with anyone.”
Nora glanced toward Adrian. “Celeste said I wanted her job.”
“Did you?” Rebecca asked.
“No.”
“Did you want her removed?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you resign?”
Nora folded her arms. “Because Henry was waking up alone. Sophie had stopped asking for breakfast. Oliver would sit on the back stairs until I arrived in the morning. I thought if I left, she’d have the house to herself.”
“Did you tell anyone besides Adrian?”
“My sister. Dr. Park once, but not directly. I asked what counted as discipline.”
“What did she say?”
“That fear is information.”
Rebecca wrote the phrase down.
Nora looked ashamed. “I should have made it clearer.”
“Yes,” Adrian said.
Both women turned toward him.
He wished immediately that he could take the word back.
Nora’s face emptied. “I made it clear to you.”
“You did.”
“I wrote examples.”
“I know.”
“You forwarded them to her.”
“I know.”
“And now you’re saying I should have—”
May you like
“No.” Adrian put down the coffee. “You’re right.”
Nora’s eyes filled, though her voice remained level. “I’m not right. I stayed. I let her call me oversensitive. I started checking the children for marks in the laundry room like that was a plan. I was afraid she’d get me fired, and I needed the health insurance. So I told myself being nearby was enough.”
