Chương 5
The number did not feel real.
Thomas continued.
“It came from a private Charles Vale account. It was deposited into an account in your mother’s name.”
Nora said, “She didn’t have seventy-five thousand dollars.”
“The money was withdrawn six days later.”
“By who?”
“That’s unclear.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t want to accuse anyone until I know.”
Nora hated that answer.
Thomas continued.
“The second payment was for twenty-five thousand. It was rejected.”
“Rejected how?”
“The transfer was returned.”
“The third?”
“Five thousand.”
Laura set down the croissant.
“For what?”
“Medical expenses, according to the notation.”
Nora looked toward the kitchen.
Her mother had spent years refusing to discuss money except when a bill was late.
They had never been poor enough for Nora to call them poor.
They had also never been comfortable.
There were winter months when Claire wore sweaters indoors because the heating bill was too high.
Five thousand dollars could disappear very quickly in a life like theirs.
Seventy-five thousand could not.
“Can bank records go back that far?”
“Sometimes,” Thomas said. “We’re checking.”
Nora closed the journal.
“Did Adrian authorize anything?”
“The first transfer was requested by Charles. Adrian handled communication.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Adrian was the person speaking to your mother.”
“Not Julian.”
“No.”
Nora stared at him.
“Did Julian try to contact her?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Not that I’ve found.”
That hurt in a way she had not expected.
She looked away.
Thomas added, “But Julian was told she had left the city.”
“That doesn’t stop phones from working.”
“No.”
Laura said softly, “Nora.”
“I’m fine.”
Neither adult corrected her.
The DNA appointment was in Midtown the next morning.
Julian arrived without a visible security detail, though Nora noticed two men in plain clothes outside the building who watched the elevator too carefully.
He wore a dark suit without a tie.
Nora found the missing tie strangely unsettling.
It made him seem as though he had been rearranged.
Laura signed forms.
Julian signed others.
A technician explained chain-of-custody procedures in a cheerful voice that did not fit the room.
Two cheek swabs.
Identification.
Sealed samples.
The results would take approximately forty-eight hours.
Nora sat while the technician rubbed the swab inside her mouth.
Across the room, Julian watched.
“Please stop looking at me,” she said around the swab.
The technician laughed.
Julian looked embarrassed.
“Sorry.”
Afterward they stood in the corridor while Laura dealt with an insurance call.
Julian put his hands in his pockets.
Nora had seen photographs of him opening factories, standing beside presidents, ringing bells at stock exchanges.
She had never seen a photograph of him not knowing what to do with his hands.
“What was she like near the end?” he asked.
Nora looked at him.
“My mom?”
“Yes.”
“Sick.”
He nodded once.
“That was a stupid question.”
“A little.”
They waited.
Julian looked toward the elevator.
“She hated lilies.”
Nora’s attention sharpened.
“What?”
“Claire. She hated lilies.”
“Why?”
“She said they smelled like funeral homes.”
Nora looked at the wall.
Her mother had said exactly the same thing.
At the hospital, when a client sent lilies, Claire made Nora ask a nurse to remove them.
“What else?” Nora asked.
Julian looked at her.
She immediately regretted asking.
He seemed to understand that.
He answered carefully.
“She put hot sauce on eggs.”
Nora waited.
“She never finished books she disliked, even if she was ten pages from the end.”
True.
“She corrected grammar on restaurant menus.”
True.
“She pretended not to care about birthdays, then got upset if people forgot.”
Nora swallowed.
True.
Julian stopped.
Nora stared at the elevator numbers.
“My mom said you were kind.”
He did not answer immediately.
“She was generous.”
“She also said she was young and kindness felt rarer than it was.”
That made him look at her.
“She said that?”
“Yes.”
He absorbed it without defending himself.
That mattered.
Laura came out of the office, still on the phone.
Julian said, “Would you both have lunch with me?”
“No,” Nora said.
Laura covered the phone.
“We have plans.”
They did not.
Julian nodded.
“Another time.”
Nora felt unexpectedly guilty.
That irritated her, so she said nothing.
They took the subway home.
Julian went back to Vale headquarters, where Adrian was waiting in Thomas’s office despite having no building credentials.
Thomas found him seated in the guest chair with his arms folded.
“How did you get upstairs?”
“People still know who I am.”
“For now.”
Adrian gave him a tired look.
“You enjoying this?”
“No.”
“You always wanted Julian to stop trusting me.”
Thomas shut the door.
“I wanted Julian to stop confusing loyalty with accuracy.”
“That sounds like something you practiced in the elevator.”
Thomas sat behind his desk.
“What happened to the seventy-five thousand?”
Adrian looked toward the window.
“Ask Claire.”
“She’s dead.”
A muscle in Adrian’s jaw moved.
“I heard.”
“You knew she was sick?”
Adrian did not answer.
Thomas leaned back.
That was answer enough.
“How?”
“She contacted me last year.”
Thomas remained still.
Adrian realized the mistake immediately.
“When?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
“September. Maybe October.”
“What did she want?”
“The same thing she always wanted.”
“What was that?”
Adrian looked at him.
“To be left alone until she didn’t.”
Thomas disliked the contempt in the sentence.
He disliked even more the familiarity.
“You spoke to her?”
“Once.”
“Did Julian know?”
“No.”
“Charles?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Adrian laughed softly.
“Because I had already made the mistake thirteen years earlier. I wasn’t eager to reopen it.”
“What mistake?”
Adrian looked toward the closed office door.
“You know what my father was like then.”
“I know what he is like now.”
“You think that’s different?”
Thomas said nothing.
Adrian rubbed a hand over his face.
May you like
“Claire told Charles she was pregnant. Dad lost his mind. Not publicly. He never did anything publicly. He told me to offer her money, get her out of New York, make sure Julian stayed focused on the restructuring.”
“And you did.”
