Chương 6
“It wasn’t addressed to me.”
“Your mother raised an ethical lunatic.”
Nora cradled the mug with her uninjured hand. “Daniel told me to give it to Lucas.”
“Then give it to him and leave.”
“I tried.”
“You succeeded dramatically.”
A phone rang in the kitchen.
Nora and Keisha both looked toward it.
The guest apartment had a landline, an object Nora had not seen outside hotels or her dentist’s office in years. It rang four times before she answered.
“Hello?”
“This is Celeste.”
Her voice sounded lower than the night before.
“Are you downstairs?”
“No. I’m in the apartment below you.”
Nora looked at the floor.
“Lucas is with his attorneys,” Celeste continued. “My father has asked the hotel to remove you. He does not have the authority, but he may try anyway.”
“Thank you for warning me.”
“Do you have the envelope here?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“My father believes it could destroy him.”
“Does that surprise you?”
“Yes.”
The honesty disarmed Nora.
Celeste breathed slowly. “He is not a good man in every situation. I know that. But he is my father, and until last night I believed I understood the shape of his failures.”
Nora watched Keisha unwrap a breakfast sandwich and remove the cheese with surgical concentration.
“What do you want from me?” Nora asked.
“To see the envelope.”
“It is addressed to Malcolm.”
“Then why did Daniel tell you to give it to Lucas?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is becoming difficult to accept.”
“It’s still true.”
Celeste was silent.
In the background, Nora heard a door close and a man’s voice speaking too softly to understand.
“My father says your mother damaged his life,” Celeste said.
“My mother spent thirty years afraid of hotel fire alarms.”
“Both things could be true.”
Nora tightened her hand around the mug.
“Maybe,” she said. “But only one of them died believing no one would ever correct what happened.”
After the call, Nora showered and changed into jeans and a sweater Keisha had brought from her apartment. Keisha refused to explain how she had entered without Nora’s key until Nora guessed that the building superintendent had let her in after seeing the news.
“Your neighbors are enjoying themselves,” Keisha said. “Mrs. Feldman told three reporters you are a private person with beautiful posture.”
“She hates my practicing.”
“She also said you play at reasonable hours.”
“That is practically love.”
At nine-thirty, Lucas arrived with a woman named Priya Desai, general counsel for Ashford Holdings.
Priya wore a navy suit and no visible makeup. She declined coffee and placed a legal pad on the table.
“This is not an interrogation,” she said.
Keisha made a sound.
Priya glanced at her. “It is, however, a conversation where accuracy matters.”
Nora sat across from Lucas. He had changed into a charcoal sweater and dark trousers. Without the tuxedo, he looked less like a figure from a magazine and more like a man who had not slept.
“Before we begin,” Priya said, “I represent Ashford Holdings. I do not represent you personally, Nora. You may wish to have counsel.”
“I can’t afford counsel.”
Lucas opened his mouth.
Nora raised one hand. “Do not offer.”
He closed it.
Priya’s pen remained still. “Have you opened Daniel’s envelope?”
“No.”
“Has anyone?”
“No.”
“Is it in your possession?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I’m not saying.”
Priya nodded as though this answer had been expected. “Did Daniel ask you to conceal it?”
“He asked me not to mail it and not to give it to Malcolm.”
“Did he explain why?”
“He said Malcolm opens doors that aren’t his.”
Lucas looked at Priya.
She wrote something.
“Did Daniel describe the contents?”
“He said it was something he failed to sign when it mattered.”
“Those exact words?”
“As close as I remember.”
“Was anyone else present?”
“A nurse came in and out.”
“Name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could the hospice confirm your visit?”
“Yes.”
“Did Daniel appear competent?”
“He appeared terminally ill.”
“That was not the question.”
“It’s the only honest answer.”
Priya put down her pen. “Competence is not the same as physical health.”
“He knew me. He knew my mother. He knew the year of the fire. He knew Lucas was getting married. He called Malcolm a coward, then apologized for making me listen to a dying man insult someone who wasn’t there.”
Lucas looked toward the windows.
Priya resumed writing. “Did he offer you money?”
“No.”
“Did he ever pay your mother?”
“Yes.”
Lucas’s attention returned.
Nora described the monthly checks. Priya asked whether records existed. Nora said some bank statements remained in storage, along with Daniel’s letters.
“What did the letters say?” Lucas asked.
Priya looked at him, perhaps preferring to control the questions.
Nora answered anyway. “Mostly practical things. He apologized for missed payments. He asked whether my mother needed medical care. He told her not to contact the hotel.”
“Why?”
“She said he was afraid Malcolm would find out.”
“Find out what?”
“That they were still communicating.”
Lucas rubbed a hand over his face.
Keisha leaned against the counter. “You all keep circling the same question. Was Nora’s mother sleeping with Daniel?”
Nora closed her eyes.
Priya remained expressionless.
Lucas looked at Nora. “Was she?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me Daniel proposed to her once.”
That produced the first genuine shock of the morning.
Nora continued before anyone could interrupt. “Before he married your mother. Ana said no.”
“Why?”
“He was ambitious, controlling, and already willing to let other people absorb the consequences of his decisions.”
Keisha lifted her coffee in silent acknowledgment.
“She cared about him,” Nora said. “That did not make them lovers.”
Lucas stared at the table. “My parents married in 1991.”
“My mother met Daniel in 1988.”
“You were born in 1996.”
“Again, he was not my father.”
Priya asked, “Who was?”
“Thomas Bell. He died when I was three.”
“Do you have documentation?”
May you like
Nora looked at her. “That is an astonishing question.”
“It will be asked publicly.”
