Chương 7
"No."
"Then you won't object to us comparing versions."
"I object to your implication."
"I haven't made one."
That was not true.
He had made it beautifully.
Julian returned carrying the gray folder.
He handed it to Price instead of me.
Price set it on the dining table.
Nobody sat.
He opened the folder and flipped to the final pages.
I watched his face rather than the paper.
His expression did not move until he reached my signature.
Then his lips parted slightly.
"Julian."
"What?"
"This isn't the document I reviewed."
Julian stared at him.
"What are you talking about?"
Price turned the page around.
The paragraph from the anonymous photograph was there.
Immediate transfer of physical custody upon maternal hospital discharge.
It bore my initials beside it.
Except I had never initialed that paragraph.
My stomach went cold.
"Those aren't mine."
Julian looked at me.
"You initialed every change."
"There were no changes."
"You did."
"No."
His voice rose.
"I watched you."
"You watched me sign."
Richard said, "She was medicated."
My head snapped toward him.
He continued before anyone could stop him.
"She had just undergone surgery."
"That doesn't mean she remembers every mark she made."
My mother stood.
"You son of a bitch."
I caught her sleeve.
"Mom."
Richard's eyes stayed on me.
He had gone too far and knew it.
Naomi's voice came through the speaker.
"Mr. Price, preserve that document exactly as it is."
Price nodded even though she couldn't see him.
"I intend to."
Julian looked furious now, but beneath it was something closer to panic.
"Dad."
Richard ignored him.
"I want to know who sent that photograph."
"So do I," Naomi said.
Richard's gaze moved toward the phone.
"Whoever you are, stay out of family business."
Naomi answered, "I'm opposing counsel, so that's unlikely."
My mother made a small sound that might have been a laugh.
Julian dragged a hand through his hair.
"Can somebody explain what the hell is happening?"
Price closed the folder.
"Someone added language after the version I reviewed."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"And she's saying the initials aren't hers."
"Correct."
Julian stared at me.
"You think I forged them?"
"I think they're not mine."
"That's not what I asked."
I looked at him.
"I don't know what you did."
That hurt him.
I could tell because his anger dropped away for one second.
Then it returned twice as hard.
"You've spent months spying on me."
Richard said, "Julian."
"No."
Julian pointed toward me.
"She copied company files."
"She went through my office."
"She hired people to investigate my family."
I felt my mother stiffen.
Price looked at me.
"Is that true?"
Naomi answered before I could.
"My client obtained legal advice regarding documents and financial activity relevant to her marriage."
Julian laughed bitterly.
"Of course."
He looked at me again.
"You've been setting this up."
I thought about the wire confirmation.
The second phone.
The nights I lay beside him pretending to sleep while he texted Sienna in the bathroom.
The afternoon Naomi told me that fear was not evidence.
The months of checking myself every time revenge began to feel easier than caution.
"I've been protecting myself."
"You call this protection?"
"I call yesterday coercion."
Evelyn appeared in the open front doorway.
None of us had heard her return.
"Sienna is gone."
Julian turned.
"What?"
Evelyn's face was drained of color.
"Her apartment is empty."
For a moment, even Richard lost control of his expression.
Julian stared at his mother.
"What do you mean empty?"
"I mean empty."
"Where is she?"
"She isn't answering."
Julian reached for his phone.
I watched his thumb hit her name.
He lifted the phone to his ear.
We all heard the faint beginning of a recorded message before he hung up.
He called again.
Same result.
Richard moved toward him.
"Don't keep calling."
Julian rounded on him.
"Why?"
"Because if she's frightened, pressure won't help."
The wording was wrong.
Price caught it too.
"So you think she's frightened?"
Richard looked at him.
"I think disappearing abruptly suggests distress."
Evelyn pressed her fingers to her forehead.
"Her closet is cleared out."
"Suitcases gone."
"Bathroom empty."
"She left the building key with the doorman."
Julian stared at nothing.
"She didn't tell me."
Nobody answered.
He called again anyway.
This time he let the voicemail play.
"Sienna, call me."
He ended the message.
Then called once more.
I watched his hand shake.
Despite everything, pity moved through me before I could stop it.
Not enough to forgive him.
Enough to recognize the humiliation of discovering that the person you trusted had been planning an exit while standing beside you.
I knew that feeling intimately.
Price opened the folder again.
"Did Sienna ever have access to this document?"
Julian looked at him.
"What?"
"Yesterday."
"Could she have handled it?"
Julian's eyes shifted.
A hesitation.
Small.
Fatal.
"Maybe."
Richard said, "No."
Julian looked at his father.
"She had the folder in the car."
Richard's face hardened.
"For how long?"
"I don't know."
"Julian."
"Ten minutes."
"Maybe fifteen."
Evelyn whispered something under her breath.
Price asked, "Was she alone?"
"Yes."
My phone buzzed again.
Everyone looked at it.
Another message from the unknown number.
This time there was no photograph.
Only an address.
Naomi said, "Don't read it aloud."
I picked up the phone.
The address was downtown.
A building I did not recognize.
Then a second message appeared.
ASK JULIAN WHY SIENNA NEEDED ACCESS TO BELLMERE.
Julian was watching my face.
"What does it say?"
I did not answer.
His eyes narrowed.
"What does it say, Claire?"
I looked at him.
"Why did Sienna need access to Bellmere?"
The color left his face.
Richard stepped forward.
"Do not answer that."
Julian turned toward him slowly.
Nobody moved.
Not Price.
Not Evelyn.
Not my mother.
Richard's mistake had been instant.
Julian's voice dropped.
May you like
"How do you know there's an answer?"
Julian kept looking at his father as if the room had narrowed to the distance between them.
