Chương 6
Daniel finally spoke.
“What do you want?”
Everyone stopped.
Adrian looked at him.
“What?”
“You’ve got six people telling you what protects the company. What protects you?”
“I’m not sure there’s a difference anymore.”
“There is always a difference.”
Melissa said, “Daniel—”
“No. He spent a year becoming public property because his car hit a median. If we’re going to advise him to make his medical recovery more public, he gets to decide why.”
Adrian rubbed his jaw.
The light stubble felt rough against his fingers.
“I want the lie corrected.”
“Which lie?” Daniel asked.
“That I fabricated the disability.”
“Did Vanessa say you fabricated it?”
“No.”
“Did the article?”
“Not directly.”
“So right now you want to answer an accusation that has mostly been implied.”
Adrian hated that Daniel was right.
Melissa said, “Silence lets implication harden.”
Martin said, “Overreaction can harden it faster.”
They began arguing.
Adrian muted the call.
The harbor appeared beyond the window.
Sailboats rocked at their moorings under a clearing sky. People moved along the waterfront. A delivery truck waited behind a restaurant. Two teenagers stood near the docks sharing something from a paper bag.
Ordinary life.
He had missed it after the crash.
Not restaurants or sailing.
The smallness of other people’s problems.
Parking tickets.
Late lunches.
Bad coffee.
He unmuted.
“I’m not releasing medical records.”
Melissa nodded.
“Okay.”
“I’m not putting Erin on television.”
“Thank you,” Erin called from across the suite.
Everyone on the call looked confused.
Adrian ignored them.
“I’ll authorize a written statement confirming that my mobility remains limited and variable, and that I use a wheelchair as medically appropriate.”
Martin nodded.
“Good.”
“No mention of Vanessa.”
Melissa hesitated.
“That leaves her framing unanswered.”
“No. It answers the fact.”
“What about the incident last night?”
Adrian looked toward the closed suite door.
“What about it?”
“We have an eyewitness.”
His expression changed.
Melissa caught it immediately.
“No,” Adrian said.
“I didn’t say we use her name.”
“No.”
“Adrian—”
“She is an employee on a yacht whose charter client filed a complaint about her. We are not pulling her into a press fight to prove I was mistreated.”
Melissa sat back.
“That would help.”
“I know.”
Daniel’s face changed very slightly.
Approval.
Adrian noticed and resented needing it.
Martin said, “There may also be security footage.”
“Then no one gets that either.”
“We may not control it.”
“Find out who does.”
Melissa sighed.
“People are going to say you’re hiding something.”
“People say things.”
“Those things move markets.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Then my company has a larger problem than my legs.”
No one answered.
The call ended thirty minutes later.
When Adrian finally left the suite, he found Maya sitting alone near the aft service entrance.
She wore jeans and a gray sweater instead of her uniform. A paper cup of coffee rested between both hands.
He stopped the chair several feet away.
“Am I violating some crew rule by being here?”
She looked up.
“Probably.”
“Good.”
“Your reputation for recklessness grows.”
He glanced at her clothes.
“You’re off duty.”
“Suspended pending review.”
His expression hardened.
“I told them—”
“I know.”
“That should matter.”
“It does.”
“How?”
“They’re now afraid firing me will look like retaliation against the woman who defended Adrian Cole.”
He frowned.
“That is not what I wanted.”
“I know.”
“And you’re still suspended.”
“Yes.”
“So I made it worse.”
“Possibly.”
He laughed despite himself.
“You and Lena use that word the same way.”
“We practice.”
Maya sipped her coffee.
Adrian looked at the empty bench across from her.
“May I?”
“You don’t need permission to exist near me.”
“That sounds vaguely familiar.”
“Don’t become sentimental.”
“I’ll try.”
He positioned the wheelchair near the bench.
For a while they said nothing.
Crew members moved along the dock preparing lines. A gull landed on a piling, looked offended by everything, then flew away.
Adrian watched it.
Maya said, “How bad is your leg?”
His gaze moved to her.
“You saw.”
“I saw.”
He considered lying.
“Bad enough that Erin has threatened to replace my blood with ibuprofen.”
“That would be medically innovative.”
“She’s ambitious.”
Maya looked toward the harbor.
“People think standing means you don’t need the chair.”
“Yes.”
“My brother could walk after his accident. Not far. People acted like he was committing fraud every time he got out of his chair at a restaurant.”
Adrian turned slightly.
“You didn’t mention that.”
“We met during an argument.”
“Fair.”
“He hated accessible parking after that.”
“Because people stared?”
“Because he could stand long enough to get his chair out of the trunk, so strangers decided they understood his entire spinal cord.”
Adrian smiled without humor.
“What happened to him?”
“He got better.”
“Completely?”
“No.”
She took another sip.
“He got better at having the body he had.”
The sentence landed quietly.
Adrian looked at his hands.
“Is that possible?”
“Apparently.”
“You sound unconvinced.”
“I’m his sister. I’m professionally unconvinced by everything he says.”
“What does he do now?”
“Teaches seventh-grade science and complains about parents.”
“That sounds healthy.”
“It is. He still uses a cane on bad days.”
Adrian nodded.
Maya studied him.
“Why didn’t Vanessa know?”
There it was.
No cushioning.
He respected that.
“I found out yesterday I could walk that far.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He looked toward the water.
“No.”
Maya waited.
Adrian sighed.
“I should have told her.”
“Probably.”
“I was going to.”
“People always say that after they don’t.”
“You are unusually pleasant before noon.”
“I’m suspended. My customer service voice is off.”
He smiled.
Then he let the smile go.
“I wanted to know whether she could accept the possibility that I might not recover more than this.”
Maya’s expression softened, but not enough to absolve him.
“So you tested her.”
“I told myself I wasn’t.”
“But you were.”
“Yes.”
“That was unfair.”
“Yes.”
“What she did was worse.”
“Yes.”
“Both can be true.”
May you like
He looked at her.
“I’m beginning to think you enjoy saying things I don’t want to hear.”
