Chương 4
She stepped forward.
“I’m nauseated.”
He withdrew at once. “I’ll call downstairs.”
“No. I just need sleep.”
Elena changed in the bathroom. When she returned, the briefcase was gone from the desk.
Julian had placed it in the wardrobe, behind his hanging suit, and locked the wardrobe safe.
He slept beside her with one arm curved over the empty space between them.
Elena remained awake until four.
At five sixteen, she slipped into the bathroom with her phone and called Mara.
The attorney answered on the second ring.
“Tell me where you are.”
“Vancouver. Hotel bathroom.”
“Can he hear you?”
“The shower is running.”
“Good. Start with the exact words.”
Elena repeated the airport conversation. Her voice remained flat until she reached the part about the house. Then the word broke in the middle.
Mara did not offer comfort.
“What house?”
“Ours.”
“Owned how?”
“We transferred it into a marital trust when we refinanced.”
“Who is trustee?”
“We both are.”
“Can either trustee act alone?”
“I don’t know.”
“That is what we find out.”
Elena sat on the closed toilet seat. The room smelled faintly of eucalyptus soap and hotel bleach.
“What is the transfer?”
“The bank’s review shows an attempt to change the controlling approval rights for three operating accounts and one investment account. There is also a pending instruction to move thirty-two million dollars into an entity called Pike Street Strategic Holdings.”
Elena pressed the phone harder against her ear.
“Thirty-two million?”
“Yes.”
“That’s nearly all the unrestricted cash.”
“I know.”
“Who owns Pike Street?”
“We are still determining that.”
“Julian?”
“Possibly. Not directly, based on what we have.”
“Vanessa?”
“Her name appears on the formation documents as authorized representative.”
Elena stared at the white tile floor.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I found out at two this morning.”
“Denver time?”
“Elena.”
The use of her first name stopped her.
Mara continued. “Your husband has not completed the transfer. The bank hold is temporary. If the company’s board ratifies the restructuring documents he is expected to present today, the bank may release it. I need photographs of everything he distributes. I also need you not to sign anything.”
“He’ll know.”
“Eventually.”
“He already thinks I’m suspicious.”
“Then you have less room than we hoped.”
Water ran uselessly into the empty shower.
Elena lowered her voice. “I saw the briefcase. He locked it.”
“Do not break into it.”
“I know the combinations he uses.”
“That is not what I said.”
“Mara, if he takes thirty-two million dollars—”
“I understand the stakes. I am telling you not to create an argument about stolen or manipulated evidence when we have other options.”
“What options?”
“Your ownership documents. The bank records. The transfer agent. Board procedure. Independent directors. A court, if necessary.”
“That sounds slow.”
“It is slower than movies and faster than most marriages.”
The sentence was dry enough that Elena almost smiled.
Mara asked for the names of every board member attending. Elena gave them. Two independent directors, three family-trust representatives, Julian, and Elena. One of the trust representatives, Charles Weller, had been her father’s lawyer. Another, Gerald Pike, was the son of the company’s cofounder. The third was Julian’s mentor, Russell Dane.
“Who trusts you?” Mara asked.
Elena looked at the steam clouding the mirror.
“Tess.”
“Tess is not on the board.”
“No.”
“Who on the board trusts you with thirty-two million dollars?”
Elena did not answer.
Mara’s silence became its own answer.
“You need to attend every meeting,” the attorney said. “Listen before you accuse anyone. Send me the materials. Do not let Julian isolate you. And Elena?”
“Yes?”
“Do not mistake being betrayed for being powerless. They are not the same thing.”
After the call, Elena stood beneath the shower long enough to justify the sound. She washed away the makeup left from the gala and watched pink water gather briefly near the drain from a stain on the dress.
When she returned to the bedroom, Julian was awake.
“Who were you talking to?”
“My stomach.”
He looked toward the bathroom.
“I heard your voice.”
“I was leaving Tess a message.”
“At five in the morning?”
“She worries.”
Julian sat up. The sheet fell to his waist.
“Let me see your phone.”
Elena’s pulse moved hard once.
Then she laughed.
It was not a convincing laugh, but surprise helped it.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re acting like I’ve accused you of something.”
“You asked to inspect my phone.”
“I asked because you’re obviously upset and refusing to tell me why.”
“You’re not entitled to search me because I’m upset.”
Julian got out of bed. “That isn’t what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you meant.”
He stood several feet away, studying her with the caution of someone approaching an unfamiliar animal.
Elena had raised her voice. That had been a mistake. For ten years, she had retreated from arguments before Julian did. She disliked the way anger changed the room. Julian knew that.
She set the phone on the dresser.
“My father died in this hotel,” she said.
Julian’s expression softened, and Elena hated how quickly he found the explanation she offered him.
“Not this room,” he said.
“I know.”
“You haven’t mentioned that in years.”
“I didn’t plan to remember.”
The lie contained enough truth to hurt.
Her father had suffered a heart attack during a Mercer Pike lender conference six years earlier. He died at a hospital two blocks from the harbor. Julian had been the one to identify his body because Elena could not make herself enter the room.
Julian came closer.
“I forgot,” he said.
“So did I.”
He wrapped his arms around her.
Elena placed her cheek against his chest. His heart beat calmly beneath her ear.
For a moment, she remembered the hospital corridor and Julian taking off his coat to cover her bare shoulders. She remembered him finding coffee, calling relatives, choosing a funeral home, and sitting on the bathroom floor while she vomited from grief.
May you like
She had not imagined that man.
He had existed.
