Chương 10
Luis nodded slowly.
“See, that’s why people don’t know what to do with you.”
“What?”
“You look like you want to punch a wall, then you say reasonable stuff.”
“I can punch the wall after you leave.”
Luis laughed.
Ethan did not.
Then he did.
It felt wrong.
He let it anyway.
Claire’s phone came back eleven days after the assault.
She did not turn it on immediately.
It sat on the kitchen counter through dinner.
Ethan watched her avoid looking at it.
At eight, after Owen went upstairs, Claire picked it up.
“Can you sit here?”
Ethan sat.
She entered her passcode.
Messages began loading.
Notifications appeared.
Missed calls.
Emails.
Texts from friends she had not answered.
A message from Margaret sent the morning before the assault.
Please don’t make decisions while you’re upset.
Another fifteen minutes later.
Ryan is terrified you’re going to misunderstand what you found.
Then:
Think about Ethan before you do anything permanent.
Claire stared at the screen.
Ethan took a breath.
“Keep going.”
She opened the thread.
There were messages from months earlier.
Most were normal.
Birthday plans.
Recipes.
A photo of Owen at soccer practice.
Then Claire searched Ryan’s name.
Margaret had written:
Ryan says you’re asking questions about the company again. Ethan hates being put in the middle.
Claire looked at Ethan.
He remembered that week.
She had asked why Ryan was paying a vendor before work was completed.
Ethan had told her she was “auditing Thanksgiving dinner.”
A joke.
Everyone had laughed except Claire.
He had forgotten it.
She had not.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She did not answer.
Another message appeared from Margaret three weeks earlier.
You need to trust that the brothers know their father’s business better than you do.
Claire scrolled.
Nothing illegal.
Nothing dramatic.
Just a steady record of dismissal.
Then she opened her email.
The screenshots were there.
Five transfers.
A vendor registration page.
And one image she had forgotten taking.
Northline’s banking information.
The account ending in 4421.
Claire opened the company records Rachel had sent them.
Different account.
Ethan leaned closer.
“What?”
Claire’s finger stayed on the screen.
“The bank account changed.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
They called Leonard.
By midnight they had an answer.
Northline payments originally went to one account.
Six months earlier, the destination account changed.
The newer account belonged to Northline.
The older one did not.
Leonard would not tell them whose it was because he did not have independent verification yet.
The next morning Rachel called.
The older account had been held by an LLC registered to Margaret Mercer.
Ethan sat in his truck outside the shop listening to the words.
“She lied.”
Rachel said nothing.
“She told me Ryan borrowed from her.”
“She may have.”
“The company paid her.”
“It appears company funds were transferred to an account associated with her entity. We still need to establish purpose.”
“What entity?”
“Mercer Property Holdings.”
He laughed.
He had never heard the name.
“When was it formed?”
“About two years ago.”
“After Dad died.”
“Yes.”
Ethan pressed his forehead against the steering wheel.
The truck smelled like sawdust and old fast food.
“What do I do?”
“About the business?”
“About all of it.”
“I can answer legal questions.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I know.”
He closed his eyes.
Rachel waited.
Eventually she said, “Don’t make one decision solve five different problems.”
He lifted his head.
“What does that mean?”
“It means whether you speak to your mother is not the same question as whether the company pursues missing funds. Whether Claire cooperates with prosecutors is not the same question as whether your business survives. Whether Ryan is your brother is not the same question as whether he returns to work.”
Ethan stared through the windshield.
“You lawyers practice saying things like that?”
“No. Most of us practice not saying anything useful without billing.”
He laughed despite himself.
“Talk to Claire,” Rachel said.
He did.
Claire listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she said, “Your mother took money too.”
“It looks like company money went to her.”
“That’s lawyer language.”
“I’m trying not to say more than we know.”
Claire looked at him.
“Fair.”
It was the first time she had rewarded his caution.
He hated how much it mattered.
“She wants to meet,” Ethan said.
“How do you know?”
“She’s been calling.”
“Are you going?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire looked toward the backyard.
Owen was outside dragging a garden hose across the grass.
“He misses her.”
Ethan followed her gaze.
“I know.”
“That doesn’t mean he should see her.”
“I know.”
Claire rubbed her sleeve.
“I miss her too.”
Ethan looked at her.
She gave him a tired, embarrassed shrug.
“She was my mother-in-law for nine years. We made Thanksgiving together. She came to the hospital when Owen was born. She knew I hated the peach hand soap in her downstairs bathroom and bought a different kind because I complained once.”
Ethan said nothing.
“I hate her right now,” Claire continued. “I’m still allowed to miss the version of her I thought I knew.”
“Yeah.”
Claire looked at him.
“Do you miss Ryan?”
Ethan’s answer came too quickly.
“No.”
She waited.
He looked away.
“Yes.”
Ryan had taught him to throw a baseball.
Ryan had broken a neighbor’s window at twelve and taken the blame when Ethan had actually thrown the rock.
Ryan had driven four hours through a snowstorm when Ethan’s first car died during college.
Ryan had sat beside their father’s hospice bed every night for the final week because Ethan could not stand the sound of Daniel breathing.
None of those memories disappeared because Ryan had hit Claire.
That made everything uglier, not easier.
“I don’t know where to put that,” Ethan said.
Claire watched Owen fight with the hose.
“Maybe nowhere yet.”
Margaret’s offer arrived through an attorney.
May you like
She would repay $70,000 to the company immediately and provide additional funds after selling an investment property.
In exchange, she wanted the company to treat disputed transfers as internal family loans and decline to pursue civil claims against her.
