Chương 9
He walked into the office.
The door shut.
Evelyn released a breath.
"I hate when he does that."
I looked at her.
"What?"
"Acts like embarrassment belongs to everyone else."
It was the first personal thing she had ever said to me that was not disguised as advice.
I did not know what to do with it.
So I looked down at Oliver.
His fist rested against my breast.
Tiny fingers.
Perfect nails.
A few hours earlier, Evelyn had arrived expecting to take him from me.
Now she sat beside me defending my right to feed him.
Human beings were inconvenient that way.
They refused to remain useful categories.
Julian's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Every trace of color disappeared from his face.
"Sienna."
He answered immediately.
"Where are you?"
We could not hear her reply.
Julian walked toward the front window.
"No, don't hang up."
Another pause.
"Are you safe?"
His voice changed.
Not angry now.
Scared.
Price gestured for him to put the call on speaker.
Julian shook his head.
"What do you mean you can't talk?"
He listened.
Then he looked toward the closed office door.
His eyes sharpened.
"Who told you that?"
Richard opened the door.
Julian immediately turned away.
"What account?"
Richard crossed the room.
"Hang up."
Julian held out one hand to stop him.
"Sienna, listen to me."
Whatever she said made his hand drop.
"No."
His voice cracked.
"No, I didn't authorize that."
Richard reached for the phone.
Julian shoved him away.
It was not a hard shove, but it stunned everyone.
Richard stumbled into the table.
The gray folder slid to the floor.
Price moved between them.
"Enough."
Julian barely seemed to notice.
"Sienna."
He pressed the phone tighter against his ear.
"I need you to tell me exactly what you did."
Her answer lasted nearly a minute.
Julian said nothing during it.
His face changed slowly.
Confusion first.
Then disbelief.
Then something that looked almost like nausea.
When he finally spoke, his voice was barely audible.
"How much?"
I felt Oliver stop nursing.
The room seemed to stop with him.
Julian closed his eyes.
"Say it again."
A pause.
Then he sat down on the bottom stair.
His hand holding the phone dropped between his knees.
"Eight hundred forty thousand?"
Evelyn made a sound beside me.
Richard did not move.
Price looked at him.
I looked at Julian.
He seemed suddenly younger, though not in any sympathetic way.
Just stripped.
"What account did it come from?" he asked.
He listened.
"No."
His eyes opened.
"No, that can't be right."
Richard took one step toward him.
Julian looked up.
"Bellmere."
Richard stopped.
Julian's face twisted.
"You said that account was dormant."
Richard answered too quickly.
"It should have been."
Sienna spoke loudly enough that even from several feet away I heard a fragment.
"I didn't know."
Julian stood.
"What didn't you know?"
She said something else.
His eyes moved to me.
I hated that.
I hated being dragged into whatever she was about to say.
"Claire's name?"
My mouth went dry.
Naomi's voice came from the coffee table.
"Claire, do not respond."
Julian held up his hand.
"Sienna, start over."
The reply came faster now.
I could not understand the words, only the urgency.
Julian turned away from all of us.
"Who told you it was a tax account?"
Another pause.
"My father?"
Richard said, "She is lying."
Julian spun around.
"You don't even know what she said."
Richard's mouth closed.
Price looked at him.
Evelyn did too.
For one second, Richard had nothing.
Julian spoke into the phone again.
"When did he tell you?"
He listened.
"The week after Claire found the transfer?"
My skin went cold.
The memory returned with humiliating clarity.
The printer.
The wire confirmation.
The torn corner.
Julian taking the page from my hand.
His irritation.
His explanation about a vendor deposit.
Then two nights later, dinner with Richard.
Richard asking whether pregnancy had made me "more curious than usual."
At the time, I thought it was one of his unpleasant jokes.
Now I understood that Julian had told him.
Julian looked at me.
He saw recognition before I could hide it.
"You told him," I said.
He lowered the phone.
"Claire."
"You told your father I found the wire."
"I didn't know what it was."
"You told him."
"Yes."
The answer hurt more because he did not dodge it.
Richard said, "This has nothing to do with her."
I laughed.
It came out wrong.
Too sharp.
Oliver startled.
I immediately lowered my voice.
"Apparently my name is on an account your son's girlfriend just drained."
"I didn't drain anything," Sienna shouted through the phone.
Julian put her on speaker at last.
Her voice filled the room.
"I transferred what Richard told me to transfer."
Richard lunged for the phone.
Price blocked him with both hands.
"Do not touch him."
Sienna continued.
"I thought it was moving between company accounts."
Julian said, "Eight hundred forty thousand dollars doesn't just move because somebody says so."
"You gave me authority."
"For reconciliations."
"Richard said you knew."
"I didn't."
"You always said your father handled the complicated side."
The bitterness in her voice made Julian flinch.
"Don't make this about us."
"It is about us."
"No, it's about money that's missing."
"You think I'm stupid?"
"I think you left."
"Because I got scared."
"Of what?"
There was a long silence.
Richard's breathing became audible.
Sienna spoke again, more quietly.
"Because Martin called me last night."
Price's head lifted.
"What did he say?" Julian asked.
"He asked if I still had copies."
"Copies of what?"
"The monthly Bellmere statements."
Richard shouted, "Hang up."
Nobody listened.
Sienna's voice trembled now.
"He told me to destroy them."
Price looked at the closed front door, then at the windows, as though the house itself had become legally dangerous.
Julian sat down again.
"Why would you have copies?"
"I downloaded them when the balances stopped matching."
May you like
"What balances?"
"The ones in the reports Richard gave you."
