Chương 4
Nathan felt no satisfaction.
Only a deeper tiredness.
“Maya?”
Adrian looked back toward the hallway.
“She’s speaking with our internal security manager.”
“Is she in trouble?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Nathan noticed.
Adrian noticed him noticing.
“She froze,” Nathan said.
Adrian lowered his voice further.
“She’s concerned she should have intervened sooner.”
“She probably is.”
“Yes.”
“And she’s concerned Celeste’s company is one of your largest accounts.”
Adrian did not answer.
That was an answer.
Nathan looked through the open doorway.
Maya stood forty feet away with another manager. Her arms were folded tightly across her body.
Nathan had barely thought about her until now.
She had been present.
She had watched.
She had failed to stop it.
And now half a dozen adults with expensive watches were going to decide what that failure cost her.
“Do not fire her for freezing.”
Adrian’s eyebrows lifted.
“I’m not in a position to promise—”
“You asked what I wanted.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then I’m telling you anyway.”
Emma had come to the doorway behind Nathan.
He felt her hand take two fingers of his left hand.
Adrian saw her.
His expression changed.
“We’ll handle this appropriately.”
Nathan almost said something sarcastic.
He did not.
Emma had heard enough adult sharpness for one night.
Adrian left.
Nathan closed the door.
Emma climbed onto the sofa.
“Are we still going on the plane?”
The question caught him off guard.
Their flight to Zurich had been scheduled for 9:40 p.m.
Nathan had been traveling to close a financing package with Arden Capital, Celeste’s firm.
Emma was supposed to fly only as far as Boston with him, where his sister Nora would collect her at Hanscom before Nathan continued across the Atlantic.
It had been an awkward plan created by three other plans falling apart.
His mother had the flu.
Nora’s train had been canceled.
Nathan refused to send Emma with a driver alone through the storm.
So he had decided to take her halfway himself.
Then Celeste had changed her own travel schedule that afternoon and announced that she would join Nathan’s aircraft in New York rather than fly from White Plains.
Nathan had thought, briefly, that the night might become the introduction he had kept postponing.
He had not told either of them.
Now that decision felt grotesque.
“No,” he said.
Emma looked toward the window.
“Because of the lightning?”
“Because we’re going home.”
“But Aunt Nora is waiting.”
“I’ll call her.”
“Are you still going to Switzerland?”
Nathan sat beside her.
He should have said no immediately.
He did not.
That hesitation lasted perhaps two seconds.
Emma saw it.
Children lived inside pauses adults barely registered.
Nathan picked up his phone.
There were already eleven missed notifications.
Three from his chief operating officer.
Two from the aircraft scheduler.
One from Nora.
Five from Celeste.
He turned the phone face down.
“I don’t know yet.”
Emma nodded.
That was worse than if she had argued.
Nathan called Nora.
She answered on the first ring.
“You’re delayed?”
“We’re not coming.”
“What happened?”
Nathan looked at Emma.
She was staring at the television screen even though it was off.
“Something happened in the lounge.”
Nora’s voice changed.
“Is Emma okay?”
“She’s with me.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“No. Not really.”
He told her the shortest version he could.
There was silence on the other end.
Then Nora said, “The woman you’re seeing did that?”
Emma turned her head.
Nathan stood and walked toward the window.
“Nora.”
“What?”
“Not now.”
“Actually, Nathan, I’m having trouble imagining a better time.”
“I’m standing six feet from Emma.”
That stopped her.
When Nora spoke again, her voice was lower.
“Bring her home.”
“I am.”
“And stay there.”
Nathan stared at the rain.
“I have Zurich.”
“You have a daughter.”
He did not answer.
Nora made a bitter sound.
“God, you hear yourself, right?”
“I said I’m taking her home.”
“I’m talking about tomorrow.”
“There are sixty-three employees whose next quarter depends on—”
“Don’t.”
“Nora.”
“Do not turn those people into an excuse for what you want to do.”
Nathan’s grip tightened around the phone.
“You don’t know what I want to do.”
“I know you.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No. Sometimes it’s worse.”
She hung up first.
Nathan stood with the phone at his ear for another second.
Emma said, “Is Aunt Nora mad?”
He turned.
“A little.”
“At me?”
“No.”
Emma considered that.
“She gets mad a lot.”
Despite himself, Nathan smiled.
“She does.”
Emma tugged her cardigan sleeve down over the smear.
Nathan’s smile disappeared.
His phone buzzed again.
Celeste.
He declined the call.
It rang immediately.
He declined it again.
A message appeared.
WE NEED TO FIX THIS BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING STUPID.
Nathan stared at the words.
Another message followed.
THE ZURICH TEAM IS ALREADY IN MOTION.
Then:
THIS IS BIGGER THAN AN ACCIDENT IN A LOUNGE.
Nathan read that one twice.
Emma had gone back to staring at the blank television.
Nathan slipped the phone into his pocket.
He helped her into her shoes.
When they left the suite, Celeste was gone.
Adrian told him security had escorted her to another private room pending transportation.
Her aircraft was grounded by the storm anyway.
Nathan found his briefcase where he had dropped it.
The leather was wet at one corner.
He picked it up.
Emma watched him.
“Is it broken?”
He opened the clasps.
Inside were three copies of the financing memorandum that could decide whether Vale Meridian opened its Chicago facility before the end of the year.
The pages were dry.
“No.”
“That’s good.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Yeah.”
He hated himself for the relief he felt.
Their driver brought the car beneath the covered entrance.
Maya stood near the concierge desk as Nathan and Emma approached the doors.
Her eyes were red.
Nathan slowed.
She looked at him.
Then at Emma.
Her lips parted.
She seemed on the verge of speaking.
May you like
No words came.
Emma looked up at her.
