Chương 13
“Why what?”
“Why does he want you?”
“To manipulate me.”
“Probably.”
“To threaten me.”
“Maybe.”
“To get something.”
Claire nodded.
“What does he think you still have?”
Nathan considered.
“Fear.”
Claire looked at him for a long time.
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She seemed surprised.
“So do I.”
That was the first moment since the crash that Nathan understood they might remain married.
Not because Claire forgave him.
She did not.
Not because the danger had brought them closer.
In some ways it had pushed them farther apart.
But neither of them was pretending courage anymore.
Nathan agreed to the meeting under conditions set by prosecutors.
It happened in a secure interview room with Daniel’s attorney present and investigators observing.
Daniel entered wearing a navy suit.
Nathan noticed immediately.
“No burgundy?”
Daniel smiled.
“I heard it had become memorable.”
He looked older.
Not dramatically.
A little more gray at the temples.
A little less patience around the eyes.
He sat.
Nathan stayed standing for a moment.
Daniel gestured toward the chair.
“You always did like entrances.”
Nathan sat.
Daniel examined him.
“So.”
Nathan waited.
“How is Claire?”
“Alive.”
“I heard.”
“Disappointed?”
Daniel’s attorney shifted.
Daniel smiled faintly.
“You still ask questions you’ve already answered for yourself.”
“And you still talk when silence would be smarter.”
“There he is.”
Nathan looked at him.
For three years, he had imagined meeting Daniel again.
In some versions Nathan destroyed him financially.
In others he ignored him with devastating elegance.
Once, after too much bourbon in Aspen, he had imagined punching him.
None of those fantasies included fluorescent lighting, government-issued furniture, and a plastic cup of water.
Reality was usually less cinematic than ego expected.
Daniel leaned back.
“You released the audit.”
“Yes.”
“That was stupid.”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised him.
Daniel studied Nathan.
“You lost the board.”
“Temporarily.”
“Maybe permanently.”
“Maybe.”
“You lost the company.”
“It’s still there.”
“Without you.”
Nathan shrugged.
Daniel frowned.
This was not going as he had expected.
“You built it.”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to let frightened directors hand it to somebody else?”
“If that’s what happens.”
Daniel smiled slowly.
“I don’t believe you.”
Nathan believed him.
Three months earlier, he would not have believed himself either.
Daniel leaned forward.
“Victoria will bury you if she gets the right deal.”
“She can try.”
“She has emails.”
“So do prosecutors.”
“She knows things about you.”
“Most people do.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
Nathan saw the cuff movement before it happened.
Right hand.
A tiny adjustment.
Even without cuff links.
Claire had been right.
Daniel said, “I can make this smaller.”
Nathan almost laughed.
Three years earlier, Daniel had offered exactly that.
Make it smaller.
Make the problem manageable.
Make the truth fit inside a room where only rich people could hear it.
“How?”
“Mutual cooperation.”
“With you?”
“With reality.”
Nathan leaned back.
“Define reality.”
Daniel smiled.
“Claire cannot reliably testify about the garage.”
“Maybe.”
“The medication case is circumstantial.”
“Maybe.”
“Victoria is unstable.”
Nathan said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“The financial matters can be resolved.”
“Resolved.”
“Restitution.”
“Ah.”
“You know how these things work.”
Nathan looked at him.
“Yes.”
That was the problem.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“You and I stop attacking each other. You clarify publicly that my departure from Cole Meridian involved disputed accounting judgments rather than fraud. I provide information making clear that Victoria acted independently regarding Claire.”
Nathan stared.
“And in exchange?”
“Emma disappears from all of this.”
The room changed.
Daniel’s attorney turned toward him.
“Daniel.”
Daniel ignored him.
Nathan did not move.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel adjusted his cuff again.
“It means there are photographs. Records. Things that become ugly in court.”
Nathan could hear his own breathing.
He could imagine standing.
Crossing the table.
He could imagine the satisfaction of one clean impact.
He could also imagine Emma hearing about it later.
Dad hit him because he was angry.
Another man deciding anger gave him authority.
Nathan placed both hands flat on the table.
Daniel smiled.
“You see?”
Nathan looked at him.
“I see what?”
“You’re still the same man.”
Nathan almost asked what he meant.
Then he understood.
Daniel expected him to protect Emma the way he had protected Cole Meridian.
By burying the thing that frightened him.
By paying.
By making ugly truth disappear before anyone important saw it.
Nathan sat very still.
“No.”
Daniel’s smile faded slightly.
“You haven’t heard—”
“No.”
“Nathan.”
“My daughter already saw the worst part.”
Daniel frowned.
“She saw adults lie to protect themselves.”
Nathan stood.
“I’m not teaching her that the answer is to lie better.”
Daniel’s attorney spoke.
“Mr. Cole, I think this conversation is over.”
Nathan nodded.
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You’ll regret this.”
Nathan believed that too.
“I probably will.”
Then he left.
Two weeks later, the Cole Meridian board asked for Nathan’s resignation as chief executive.
The independent investigation concluded that while he had not participated in Victoria and Daniel’s theft, his decision three years earlier to suppress the original Cross investigation had allowed weaknesses in the company’s controls to remain uncorrected.
Nine million dollars had been stolen through those weaknesses.
Nathan signed the resignation letter at the townhouse kitchen table.
Emma was doing homework beside him.
She looked at the paper.
“Are you fired?”
“Basically.”
“Do we have to move?”
Nathan looked around at the borrowed townhouse.
“Technically we already did.”
She rolled her eyes.
He smiled.
“No. We’re okay.”
“Are we still rich?”
Nathan coughed.
From the other side of the room, Claire laughed.
Emma looked offended.
“I’m asking because Madison said when her dad lost his job they couldn’t go skiing.”
Nathan glanced at Claire.
Claire said, “This seems like your department.”
He looked back at Emma.
“Yes, we’re still rich.”
“How rich?”
“Enough.”
“That’s not a number.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with your mother.”
Claire raised her coffee mug in salute.
Emma returned to her math worksheet.
Nathan signed the letter.
The pen did not shake.
May you like
That bothered him.
He expected losing the company to feel like amputation.
