Chương 8
Robert’s older brother had spent years in a vicious divorce that fractured the Carter family business when Daniel was a teenager. Robert had treated the story like scripture: love made people careless; carelessness exposed assets; exposure destroyed families.
Daniel had spent most of his life believing his father had learned discipline from that experience.
Now it looked more like damage.
“You were afraid,” Daniel said.
Robert’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t psychoanalyze me.”
“You were.”
“I was protecting the company.”
“No. You were trying to make sure my life never resembled Uncle James’s.”
Robert stood.
“Your uncle lost everything.”
“He lost a marriage.”
“He lost his children.”
Daniel went quiet.
Robert saw the opening.
“That is what you don’t understand. He trusted someone who used his children as leverage until there was nothing left of him.”
“Elena didn’t do that.”
“You didn’t know what Elena would do.”
“Neither did you.”
“I acted on risk.”
“You acted on a woman who was pregnant and alone.”
Robert’s face hardened.
Daniel continued.
“And I let you.”
That stopped him.
Daniel looked down at his desk.
“I’m not giving myself a pass because you lied.”
Robert said nothing.
“I could have gone to her apartment. I didn’t. I could have called from another number. I didn’t. I could have found her through friends. I didn’t.”
He looked at his father.
“You knew exactly which weakness to use.”
Robert sat down again.
For a moment he looked older.
“I thought you would get over her.”
“I did.”
The words tasted terrible.
Robert stared at him.
Daniel continued.
“That’s the problem.”
Victoria stayed at her sister’s apartment for twelve days.
On the thirteenth, she came home because she needed a navy dress she had left in their closet.
Daniel was making coffee.
She stood in the kitchen doorway.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“You’re here.”
“I live here.”
“I know. I just assumed you’d be at work.”
“It’s Sunday.”
Victoria looked at the clock.
“Right.”
Neither of them mentioned that she had known what day it was before walking into the room.
Daniel poured coffee into a second cup.
“Do you want one?”
“Yes.”
He made hers with a small amount of milk.
She noticed.
“You remembered.”
He looked at her.
“I always remember your coffee.”
“I know.”
The sentence hurt them both.
Victoria sat at the counter.
Daniel remained standing.
“How was the museum?” she asked.
He smiled before he could stop himself.
“Theo corrected a dinosaur sign.”
“Was he right?”
“No.”
“Did that matter?”
“Not remotely.”
Victoria smiled.
Daniel’s face changed.
She looked down at her coffee.
“Grace?”
“Doesn’t like socks.”
“That seems reasonable.”
“Mateo wouldn’t talk to me for half an hour.”
“And then?”
“He handed me a train wheel.”
Victoria nodded as if this were significant.
Daniel had discovered that it was.
He sat opposite her.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I don’t either.”
She rotated the cup by its handle.
“I’ve been angry at your father for two weeks.”
“That’s healthy.”
“I’m also angry at Elena.”
Daniel looked at her.
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“I know that’s unfair.”
“She hit me.”
“That isn’t why.”
He waited.
Victoria looked toward the window.
“I’m angry because she has a version of you I never had.”
Daniel frowned.
“A younger, less damaged version?”
“No.”
She gave him a tired look.
“She has proof you once did something ridiculous because you were happy.”
“The rabbit.”
“Yes.”
Daniel said nothing.
Victoria rubbed her ring.
“When we decided to get married, you gave me a spreadsheet of venues.”
Despite everything, Daniel laughed.
She did too.
“That was romantic.”
“It had color coding.”
“It had tabs.”
“You liked the tabs.”
“I married you anyway.”
The laughter faded.
Victoria’s eyes became wet.
“I don’t want to compete with a woman you lost.”
“You’re not.”
“Please don’t say the efficient husband thing.”
Daniel stopped.
She took a breath.
“I need to know whether you loved me because you loved me, or because I was safe after her.”
He leaned back.
“That’s not a question I can answer in a way that won’t sound designed.”
“Then don’t design it.”
Daniel stared at his coffee.
“I loved that you never needed me to rescue you.”
Victoria gave a small, sad smile.
“That’s not flattering.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“I loved that you told me when I was being an ass. I loved that you could leave a party without saying goodbye to twelve people. I loved the way you read restaurant menus online before we went anywhere and still asked the waiter what was good.”
She looked down.
“I still do that.”
“I know.”
He continued.
“I loved you because you were you. But I also think I chose a relationship where I knew I could survive if it ended.”
Victoria’s eyes lifted.
Daniel swallowed.
“I don’t think I knew I was doing that.”
“No.”
She nodded.
“But you were.”
“Yes.”
For the first time in weeks, she reached across the counter.
She did not take his hand.
She touched two fingers to his wrist, directly above the silver watch.
“I don’t know if we’re okay.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
He almost smiled.
“Sorry.”
She withdrew her hand.
“I’m coming home.”
His face changed.
“To the guest room.”
He nodded.
“And I’m not promising anything.”
“I understand.”
Victoria pointed at him.
“That was dangerously close.”
He shut his mouth.
The investigation inside Carter Hospitality began as a narrow review of whether company employees had been used for private family matters.
It widened quickly.
Harold Wynn produced billing records.
Several invoices from four years earlier described work for “D.C. personal exposure matter.” Costs had been charged to a family holding company, not the hotel group, but two employees had participated.
One was Claire Mercer.
Daniel asked outside counsel to contact her.
Claire declined an interview.
They asked again.
She hired her own attorney.
Robert called Daniel that night.
May you like
“You’re destroying a woman’s career to punish me.”
Daniel stood in his apartment hallway while Victoria watched television in the living room.
