Chương 10
Need the contingency clean before Friday.
Vanessa replied:
I know.
That was all.
Bishop warned Madison not to read too much into two sentences.
Madison read everything into them.
Friday had been her procedure date.
The messages could refer to a financial contingency.
A corporate contingency.
Any contingency.
The ambiguity made them more sinister, not less.
That evening Madison showered for the first time.
Rachel wrapped the bandages carefully and stood outside the bathroom door.
“I can shower alone.”
“I know.”
“You’re standing there.”
“I’m enjoying the hallway.”
Madison rolled her eyes.
The water was warm.
For several minutes she did nothing except stand beneath it.
The penthouse bathroom had been designed for clients who were wealthy enough to expect recovery to resemble a hotel. Heated floors. Stone walls. A shower large enough to host a small committee meeting.
Madison had approved every finish.
Now she noticed a grout line near the floor was slightly darker than the others.
It bothered her.
She stared at it.
Then, unexpectedly, she began to cry.
Not dramatically.
There was no collapse.
No sound beyond one difficult breath.
She cried because of the grout line.
Because somebody had installed expensive stone badly.
Because she had built a company where people argued about grout while her closest friend altered corporate documents and her fiancé carried an insurance policy through a hallway at midnight.
She cried because the water touched her shoulders and she could not wash her face.
She cried because Caroline Webb had been dead seven years and somehow had entered Madison’s bathroom.
When she came out, Rachel did not mention her red eyes.
She helped replace the outer dressing.
“Do I look like her?”
Rachel’s hands stopped.
Madison regretted asking.
“Caroline.”
“I know who you meant.”
“Do I?”
Rachel looked directly at her.
“No.”
“The altered picture did.”
“A little.”
“Ethan chose my surgeon.”
Rachel frowned.
“I thought you said you chose him.”
“I did. Ethan sent me his name first.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“I know what it doesn’t mean.”
Rachel finished taping the dressing.
Madison looked into the mirror.
“What if he picked me because I looked like someone dead?”
Rachel met her eyes through the reflection.
“Then that would say something horrifying about him.”
Madison waited.
“It would not say anything about you.”
Madison looked away.
She disliked statements that sounded too neat.
Rachel seemed to know.
“Also,” she added, “you look nothing like that woman when you’re irritated.”
Madison turned.
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea. I panicked.”
Madison laughed and immediately regretted it.
Rachel handed her an ice pack.
On the fourth day, Ethan asked to speak to her.
The request came through attorneys.
Madison said no.
An hour later she changed her mind.
Simon objected.
Bishop objected more strongly.
Rachel said nothing until they were alone.
“Do you want to talk to him because you need information or because you miss him?”
Madison stared at the television without watching it.
“That’s rude.”
“It’s also a question.”
“Both.”
Rachel nodded.
“Then at least you know.”
The conversation took place by phone with attorneys on both sides listening.
Ethan’s lawyer insisted it was not an investigative interview.
Simon insisted Madison could end it whenever she wanted.
Madison found the formalities unbearable.
Then Ethan’s voice came through the speaker.
“Maddie?”
Her body betrayed her.
Every muscle recognized him.
For one insane second, relief moved through her.
He was alive.
He sounded tired.
He sounded like Ethan.
Exactly what Rachel had warned.
Madison closed her eyes.
“Did you know about the surgery form?”
“No.”
No hesitation.
“Did you change my insurance beneficiary?”
“No.”
“Did Vanessa?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why were you carrying the policy to the penthouse?”
“Vanessa asked me to bring documents from your apartment.”
“My insurance policy was at my apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Silence.
Then, “In the desk.”
“Which desk?”
“Maddie.”
“Which desk?”
“The office.”
She looked at Simon.
He was writing.
Madison continued.
“I don’t keep insurance documents in the office.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Then how did you find it?”
“Vanessa told me where the envelope was.”
There.
A small thing.
A real thing.
Madison felt her pulse rise.
“How did Vanessa know where something was in my apartment?”
Ethan exhaled.
“I assumed you told her.”
“You assumed a lot.”
His lawyer interrupted, but Ethan spoke over him.
“I know how this looks.”
Madison laughed softly.
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“I did not try to hurt you.”
The sentence was too large.
Madison went still.
She had not asked if he had tried to hurt her.
Simon glanced at her.
Ethan continued quickly.
“I had nothing to do with your medical records.”
“Why did you say hurt me?”
“What?”
“I asked about documents.”
A pause.
“Maddie, come on.”
There was the old Ethan.
The tone that meant she was making something harder than it needed to be.
It had once comforted her.
Now it made her skin crawl.
“Were you engaged to Caroline Webb?”
Nothing.
Not even breathing.
His attorney said, “Ethan, don’t answer.”
Madison felt her fingers go cold.
Ethan said, “Yes.”
The room tilted slightly.
Simon moved the water closer.
Madison ignored it.
“You told me you had never been engaged.”
“I should have told you.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I didn’t know how.”
“That’s also not an answer.”
“Maddie—”
“Did you choose me because I look like her?”
His inhale came through the speaker.
“No.”
“Did you make that picture?”
“What picture?”
“The surgical reference image.”
“No.”
“Have you seen it?”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
“When?”
His lawyer interrupted again.
Madison hit the end-call button.
The sudden silence made the penthouse feel enormous.
Simon looked at her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
She looked at him.
He set down his pen.
Madison stood too quickly.
Rachel, across the room, started toward her.
“I’m fine.”
Nobody believed her.
May you like
She walked to the windows anyway.
Below, Miami moved through late afternoon as though nothing had happened. Traffic crawled along the causeway. A white boat turned slowly in the bay.
