Chương 8
It showed Lily kneeling.
Vanessa’s voice was audible.
It’s junk. Just like the little sob story.
Daniel appeared in frame.
The video ended moments after he said, I bought this resort this morning. You’re fired.
By twelve-thirty, it had spread beyond the resort.
Daniel learned about it because his communications director called him while he was helping Lily zip her ski jacket.
“Don’t open anything,” she said.
“Hello to you too.”
“I’m serious.”
Lily looked up.
Daniel turned away.
“What happened?”
“There’s video from yesterday.”
His stomach dropped.
“How much?”
“Forty-two seconds.”
“Lily?”
“Visible.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Can we get it down?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the internet continues to be the internet.”
He heard typing.
“It’s already been reposted.”
“What are people saying?”
“Everything.”
“That’s useful.”
“Some people think you staged it.”
Daniel stared at the wall.
“What?”
“Some think the acquisition was fake. Some think the firing was retaliation. Some are digging into Vanessa’s employment history. Some are trying to identify Lily.”
Daniel looked toward his daughter.
She was struggling with one glove.
“Do not name her.”
“We haven’t.”
“Ask media not to.”
“We will. We can’t control reposts.”
“Who filmed it?”
“No idea yet.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Get counsel involved.”
“Already.”
“And the competition?”
“What about it?”
“People are going to say the judging was manipulated.”
There was a pause.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s face went cold.
His communications director said, “Daniel.”
“I have to go.”
“Do not post anything personally.”
“I won’t.”
“Do not reply to Vanessa.”
“I won’t.”
“Do not make promises you can’t keep.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“That one feels broader.”
“It is.”
He ended the call.
Lily had gotten the glove on.
“What happened?”
“Someone recorded yesterday.”
Her face changed.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Doing what?”
Daniel sat on the bench beside her.
“Getting your trophy.”
She stared at him.
“Is it online?”
“Yes.”
“How many people saw it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Like a hundred?”
“More.”
“A thousand?”
“Probably more.”
Her breathing changed.
Daniel put a hand on her knee.
“You don’t have to go skiing.”
“I want to.”
“Okay.”
“What are they saying?”
He hesitated.
Lily pulled her knee away.
“Dad.”
“Some people are criticizing Vanessa. Some are talking about me.”
“And me?”
“Probably.”
Her eyes filled.
Daniel hated the answer.
He hated more that lying would not help.
“Can they know my school?”
“We’re going to make sure the school knows what happened. Your name wasn’t in the resort statement.”
“It’s on the trophy.”
Daniel froze.
The brass plate.
FIRST PLACE — JUNIOR INVENTOR.
The competition program was online.
Contestants’ names were public.
He stood.
Lily stood too.
“What?”
“I need to call the school.”
“Are people coming there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Dad.”
“I don’t know.”
That uncertainty frightened her.
Daniel saw it.
He forced himself to slow down.
“We’re going to handle it.”
“You always say that.”
The sentence landed harder than she meant it to.
Or exactly as hard.
Daniel sat again.
Lily looked guilty immediately.
“I didn’t—”
“No. You’re right.”
She stared at the floor.
Daniel removed his phone from his pocket and turned it off.
“Here’s what I know. You’re safe here. Grandma’s with us. Ethan’s with us. The resort has security. I’m going to tell your school not to give anyone information. Nobody gets to ask you questions you don’t want to answer.”
“What if my friends see it?”
“They might.”
“What do I say?”
“Whatever you want.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“No.”
Lily rubbed her glove against her jacket.
“What would Mom say?”
Daniel looked at the ceiling.
“She’d probably say my advice is terrible.”
Lily’s mouth twitched.
“Then she’d ask what you want people to know.”
Lily thought.
“That Vanessa lied.”
“Okay.”
“And I built the glove thing myself.”
“Okay.”
“And Mom helped make the trophy.”
Daniel nodded.
“Anything else?”
Lily looked toward the window.
“No.”
They went skiing.
Not because Daniel believed distraction solved anything.
Because Lily had spent three weeks talking about the blue intermediate run and had finally worked up the courage to try it.
Margaret stayed behind.
Ethan came with them.
On the chairlift, none of them mentioned Vanessa.
Ethan complained about school.
Lily asked whether trees got cold.
Daniel said trees did not have opinions.
Ethan said that sounded like propaganda from Big Tree.
Lily laughed hard enough that the chairlift swung slightly.
“Stop moving,” Daniel said.
“You stop moving.”
“I’m not moving.”
“Your head is.”
“My head has rights.”
At the top, Lily fell twice before reaching the first turn.
The second time she sat in the snow and shouted a word Claire had once used in traffic.
Daniel pretended not to hear.
Ethan did not.
He laughed so violently he had to sit down too.
For several minutes they were simply three people on a ski run.
Then, at lunch, a stranger approached their table.
She was perhaps thirty-five.
She held a phone.
“Are you the dad from the video?”
Daniel stood immediately.
“Please don’t film my daughter.”
“I’m not.”
Her phone was already raised.
“Put it down.”
“I just wanted to say what you did was amazing.”
“Put the phone down.”
The woman lowered it, offended.
“I was supporting you.”
“I appreciate that. Please don’t film her.”
Lily stared at her tray.
The woman walked away.
Ethan watched her go.
“People are weird.”
Daniel sat.
Lily said, “I want to go home.”
They left that afternoon.
Northstar became a story Daniel could not control.
By Sunday evening, the video had millions of views.
News outlets requested interviews.
Parenting accounts praised Daniel.
Others condemned him for humiliating an employee in front of a child.
Several users accused him of buying the competition after discovering he owned the resort.
The timeline made no difference.
Mercer Lodging had completed the acquisition the morning of the awards.
To strangers, that looked close enough.
A local blogger found Vanessa’s executive biography and published an article asking whether a wealthy investor had retaliated against his girlfriend after a domestic dispute.
May you like
Vanessa issued no statement.
That silence helped her.
