Part 3
He did not know her granddaughter sat beside him at breakfast, reading emails with one foot tucked beneath her.
Lena learned about the financing by accident.
Adrian left a presentation open on his laptop while taking a call on the balcony. The Vale International logo appeared above a projected funding schedule.
She stared at it until Adrian returned.
“What is that?” she asked.
He closed the laptop too quickly.
“Work.”
“My grandmother’s company is financing your resort?”
He laughed once, uncertain whether she was joking.
“Your grandmother’s company?”
Lena heard her own mistake.
She had never named the company.
“She worked for them,” Lena said.
Adrian’s suspicion faded into amusement.
“You scared me for a second.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought you were about to tell me your grandmother was Margaret Vale.”
He grinned.
Lena waited.
Adrian opened the laptop again.
“She’s terrifying, apparently. No one can get a read on her.”
“Have you tried?”
“She doesn’t attend preliminary meetings.”
“Maybe she reads people before she meets them.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
He clicked through the presentation.
“We need this agreement finalized before the next construction draw. My mother is having dinner with Harold tomorrow. We’ll go through the remaining issues.”
Lena looked at Margaret’s name on the final approval line.
“Does she know about us?”
“Who?”
“Margaret Vale.”
“Why would she?”
“Her company is investing in your family.”
“And?”
“And investors usually examine leadership.”
Adrian’s mouth tightened.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Nothing.”
“You think I’m a liability?”
“I asked a question.”
He shut the laptop again.
“This is what I mean. You take some ordinary detail and make it sound like an accusation.”
Lena stood.
“I’m going to make tea.”
“We’re having a conversation.”
“No. You’re having one.”
His chair scraped behind her.
“Lena.”
She stopped at the kitchen entrance.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“Don’t walk away when I’m speaking to you.”
There it was.
Not loud. Not yet cruel. Just naked enough that neither of them could pretend it meant something else.
Lena turned.
“What happens if I do?”
For a moment, he looked startled.
Then he smiled as though she had teased him.
“Nothing happens.”
She made tea. He returned to his presentation. They spent the evening in the same apartment without touching.
The next morning, Lena called Margaret.
Her grandmother answered on the second ring.
“You’re awake early,” Margaret said.
“It’s nine.”
“For you, that is early.”
“I’ve been awake since six.”
“Then something is wrong.”
Lena stood at the window overlooking Wilshire Boulevard. Traffic moved below in slow bands. Adrian had gone to a breakfast meeting, leaving the apartment unusually quiet.
“Vale International is financing the Sonoran Crown.”
Margaret did not answer immediately.
“Yes.”
“You knew it belonged to Adrian’s family.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Long enough.”
Lena pressed two fingers to the cool glass.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why didn’t you tell him who I am?”
“That’s different.”
“It is different to you.”
“Were you investigating him?”
“We investigate every executive whose decisions could affect several hundred million dollars.”
“You know what I mean.”
Another pause.
Margaret’s voice softened.
“I knew you were seeing him before the Mercer proposal reached us. I did not direct the company toward the project. I also did not remove it from consideration because my granddaughter became engaged to one of its principals.”
“Does your team know?”
“Two people know our relationship. Neither has spoken to him.”
Lena watched a bus stop at the corner.
“What did the investigation find?”
“That is not a question I can answer as your grandmother.”
“Answer as an investor.”
“You are not an investor.”
“I might marry him.”
“Then ask as a woman who might marry him.”
Lena closed her eyes.
“Do you think he’s dangerous?”
Margaret exhaled. It was the faint, controlled breath she used when refusing to say more than she could support.
“I think he has been protected from the full cost of his behavior.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the most accurate answer I have.”
“Has he done something illegal?”
“Not according to the information currently available.”
“Unethical?”
“Frequently.”
Lena let her forehead rest against the glass.
Margaret waited.
That was one of her gifts. She could leave silence untouched until someone else filled it honestly.
“He told me not to walk away when he was speaking,” Lena said.
“What did you do?”
“I asked what would happen.”
“And?”
“He pretended it was a joke.”
Margaret’s reply came without hesitation.
“Do not marry someone who needs you to doubt what you heard.”
The sentence entered the room and remained there.
Lena straightened.
“You’ve never liked him.”
“I have met him twice.”
“You said you hadn’t.”
“I said he had not met me. There is a difference.”
“When?”
“Once at a conference in New York. Once in Singapore. Both times I was introduced briefly among other people. He does not remember me.”
“Why?”
“He was speaking to someone more important.”
Despite herself, Lena smiled.
Margaret continued.
“I do not need to like him. You do.”
“I do.”
“Then I hope he becomes worthy of it.”
“You think people can change?”
“All people change. The question is what they require before they do.”
Lena looked at the ring on her left hand.
“What would you require?”
“I would require evidence.”
“Of what?”
“That he can hear no without treating it as humiliation. That he can be corrected without seeking revenge. That he can encounter someone with less power and remain decent.”
“You sound like you’re evaluating a regional manager.”
“I have removed regional managers for less than what women forgive in husbands.”
Lena turned away from the window.
“I haven’t forgiven anything.”
“No?”
“No.”
Margaret allowed the question to remain between them.
Before ending the call, she told Lena she would be in Palm Springs Thursday night with two senior executives. The final contract meeting was scheduled for Friday morning at the Mercer development office.
May you like
“I was not planning to see you,” Margaret said. “I assumed that would complicate matters.”
“It would.”
