Chương 6
“You want me in a meeting?”
“You’re a lawyer.”
“I’m a third-year associate.”
“You have a bar card?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“That is not normally how staffing decisions are made.”
“It is apparently a new era.”
Victoria waited in a small conference room on the fifth floor.
She had changed out of the silver gown.
In daylight, wearing dark trousers and a cream blouse, she looked younger and far more tired.
No diamond earrings.
No makeup Claire could see.
Her blonde hair was tied loosely at the back rather than polished into the perfect low bun from the unveiling.
Claire entered with Malcolm.
Victoria looked at him.
“Who is that?”
“Counsel.”
“He looks twelve.”
Malcolm said, “Thirty.”
Victoria blinked.
“Sorry.”
“It happens.”
Claire sat opposite her.
“You asked to see me.”
Victoria looked toward the door.
“Nathan doesn’t know I’m here.”
“That sounds like something you should decide whether to tell me.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“I thought you’d enjoy this.”
“Enjoy what?”
“Watching his fiancée come running to you.”
Claire felt a small, unpleasant spark of satisfaction.
It embarrassed her.
“I don’t know you well enough to enjoy anything about you.”
Victoria absorbed that.
Then nodded.
“Fair.”
She placed her phone on the table but did not push it forward.
“I need to ask you something before I tell you why I came.”
“Okay.”
“Did Nathan steal money?”
“No evidence I’ve seen says that.”
Victoria’s shoulders dropped perhaps half an inch.
Malcolm wrote something down.
She noticed.
“Do you have to do that?”
“Yes,” he said.
She looked back at Claire.
“Did he falsify records?”
“We’re reviewing.”
“That means yes.”
“It means reviewing.”
“Is he going to prison?”
“I don’t know.”
Victoria pressed her fingers together.
For the first time, Claire saw the fear under the suspicion.
Not fear for Nathan’s job.
Fear that the person Victoria planned to marry might be someone she did not recognize.
“We were supposed to get married in October,” Victoria said.
Claire did not know what response was expected.
So she waited.
Victoria continued.
“He postponed it twice.”
“Because of work?”
“That’s what he said.”
A laugh escaped her, dry and tired.
“Everything was because of work. Dinner. Weekends. Wedding. His mother’s birthday. Apparently capitalism personally prevented him from calling his mother.”
Claire glanced at Malcolm.
He had stopped writing.
Victoria noticed that too.
“I’m not asking for sympathy.”
“Good.”
“You really don’t like me.”
“I don’t know you.”
“You looked at me last night like I was part of it.”
Claire thought about denying it.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because you were standing beside him.”
Victoria looked down.
“People do that when they’re engaged.”
“I know.”
“Were you married when he fired you?”
“No.”
“Dating anyone?”
Claire almost laughed.
“What does that have to do with—”
“I’m trying to understand whether you had somebody to go home to after he did it.”
The question caught her.
Claire looked toward the glass wall.
Malcolm suddenly became very interested in his notes.
“No,” she said.
Victoria nodded.
“I did.”
Another silence.
Then she unlocked her phone.
“I came because of the sapphire.”
Claire’s attention sharpened.
“Why?”
“Nathan told me Richard was going to give it to me after we got married.”
Claire said nothing.
Victoria laughed again.
This time there was no humor in it.
“He said it was tradition.”
“It isn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“The sapphire belonged to Richard’s wife. She wore it at the first Sterling transatlantic launch. After she died, it became a company thing. Chairmen’s dinners, anniversaries, that sort of nonsense.”
“He told me it meant I would be family.”
Claire looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Victoria’s eyes moved away immediately.
That was the first moment Claire liked her.
Not because she was hurt.
Because she refused to perform the hurt for an audience.
“He knew you were getting it,” Victoria said.
Claire went still.
“When?”
“I don’t know exactly. But he knew something.”
“How?”
Victoria opened a message thread.
She turned the phone.
The messages were between her and Nathan, four days earlier.
Nathan: Richard’s making another sentimental move.
Victoria: Meaning?
Nathan: Benton.
Victoria: Claire?
Nathan: He’s meeting her again.
Victoria: Why?
Nathan: Because old men get guilty when they’re afraid of dying.
Victoria: Nathan.
Nathan: It’s handled.
Claire read the last line again.
“What did ‘handled’ mean?”
“I asked him.”
“And?”
“He said Richard was trying to bring you back as an adviser and he’d make sure it didn’t happen.”
Claire leaned back.
Malcolm resumed writing.
Victoria scrolled.
“There’s more.”
Two nights earlier:
Victoria: Are you still at the office?
Nathan: Richard has lost his mind.
Victoria: What happened?
Nathan: Nothing. Go to sleep.
Victoria: Call me.
Nathan: Tomorrow. I’m fixing it.
Claire looked at Victoria.
“Did he call?”
“At three in the morning.”
“What did he say?”
“That Richard was panicking about the audit and blaming everyone.”
“Did he mention the share transfer?”
“No.”
“Did he mention me?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly?”
Victoria swallowed.
“He said if Richard put you in the room, you would burn the company down just to prove you were right.”
Claire felt the sentence more than she wanted to.
“What did you say?”
“I told him that sounded ridiculous.”
“Because?”
Victoria held her gaze.
“Because people usually don’t want to burn down companies they tried to protect.”
Claire looked at Malcolm.
He did not look up.
“Can we retain copies of these messages?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Yes.”
“With your consent.”
“Yes.”
“Nathan’s attorneys may learn you provided them.”
“I assumed.”
“That could affect you personally.”
“I assumed that too.”
“Why are you doing it?”
Victoria stared at the phone.
“Because last night he looked at that necklace like he had seen a ghost.”
She locked the screen.
“And I realized I had spent three years listening to him describe everybody else as the problem.”
At one, Nathan arrived through the underground garage.
His attorney accompanied him.
May you like
Claire watched from the conference room as they entered.
Nathan wore a dark suit and no tie. The red mark was gone from his cheek. He looked tired but composed until he saw Claire.
