Chương 5
Grant learned this when his communications director called.
He left the lounge to take the call.
Celeste’s attorney called.
Theo’s father called another attorney.
Nora turned off her phone after the fifth notification.
June sat beneath a lamp with an ice pack against her cheek and the locket around her neck.
The chain had broken years ago, so Nora had threaded it onto a thin black cord from an emergency sewing kit.
June hated the cord.
She liked having the locket there anyway.
Maya brought hot chocolate.
“I didn’t ask for this.”
“No.”
“Did Nora?”
“No.”
“Did my dad?”
“No.”
June looked at her.
Maya shrugged.
“You look like somebody who needs hot chocolate.”
“I’m not six.”
“I’m thirty-two. I need hot chocolate.”
June took it.
Maya sat across the aisle.
Employees were not supposed to sit with passengers. June knew because Celeste had once complained about it during another trip.
“You saw her hit me.”
“I did.”
“You saw Nora hit her.”
“I did.”
“Who was worse?”
Maya considered the question longer than June expected.
“I don’t think that’s my decision.”
“That’s an adult answer.”
“It is.”
“I hate adult answers.”
“I did too when I was nine.”
“Do you still?”
“Yes.”
June looked into the hot chocolate.
A skin had formed on top.
She pushed it aside with a spoon.
“Do you think my mom could be alive?”
Maya’s face changed.
June instantly wished she had asked someone else.
“I don’t know anything about the accident,” Maya said.
“Everybody says that when they don’t want to say no.”
“I really don’t know.”
June looked out at the snow.
“Would you tell me if you did?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it was bad?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Maya glanced toward the corridor where Grant had disappeared.
“Because I think people get to be sad about what actually happened.”
June stirred the chocolate.
“That sounded like an adult answer too.”
“Probably.”
“But a better one.”
Maya smiled.
“Thanks.”
At ten-thirty, Grant came back.
He looked older.
The internet had discovered Celeste.
It had also discovered June.
A passenger’s video showed the cake falling, June’s accusation, Celeste’s slap, and Nora’s retaliation. It did not show what had happened before the cake moved. A second video began with Nora holding up her phone. A third captured Grant saying the coffin was empty.
Within an hour, strangers had built entire versions of the Mercer family from fourteen seconds of footage.
Some called June violent.
Others called her brave.
Some called Nora a hero.
Others called her an unstable woman who assaulted a grieving mother.
Celeste’s defenders claimed the locket was family property and the grave story was fabricated.
Grant’s company issued a statement asking for privacy.
That made everything worse.
June watched none of it.
Nora did.
Then she regretted it.
“They’re using her name,” she told Grant in the corridor.
“They already knew her name.”
“She is nine.”
“I’m aware.”
“You put her on foundation Christmas cards for years.”
“That was Eleanor.”
“You approved them.”
Grant rubbed his forehead.
“I approved a lot of things.”
Nora stared at him.
“You keep saying sentences like that as if they’re confessions.”
“They might be.”
“No. Confessions are specific.”
He lowered his hand.
“All right.”
Nora waited.
He looked through the glass door toward June, who was sitting with Maya.
“I knew Eleanor was investigating Celeste.”
Nora became still.
“How much?”
“I knew there were irregular foundation payments.”
“And?”
“And I told Eleanor to let the auditors handle it.”
“She didn’t.”
“No.”
“What did Celeste do?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It’s true.”
Nora folded her arms.
Grant continued.
“The family foundation reimbursed vendors connected to Celeste. Consulting agreements. Events. Property leases. Eleanor believed some of the companies were controlled by people close to her.”
“Were they?”
“Some were.”
“How much money?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re chairman.”
“I was chairman.”
“You were chairman when your wife brought you evidence your sister might be diverting money.”
“My separated wife.”
Nora’s eyes hardened.
“That distinction mattered to you?”
“At the time, yes.”
“God.”
“I said I was wrong.”
“No. You said you approved a lot of things.”
Grant looked toward the windows.
Snow blurred the view.
“Eleanor wanted an outside forensic audit. I told her it would destroy the foundation.”
“If the foundation was being robbed, it was already being destroyed.”
“I know that now.”
Nora almost laughed.
“Do you?”
He turned back.
“She threatened to go to the board.”
“What stopped her?”
“The accident.”
The word sat between them.
Nora studied his face.
“Do you believe the accident was an accident?”
Grant’s expression barely changed.
But it changed.
“You’ve asked me that before.”
“You didn’t answer then.”
“I have no evidence it was anything else.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No,” he said at last. “I don’t know what I believe.”
June stood in the doorway.
They had not heard her approach.
Nora closed her eyes.
Grant looked sick.
June said, “What foundation money?”
Neither adult spoke.
She stepped into the corridor.
“You keep doing it.”
“June—”
“You keep waiting until I’m not there.”
Nora said, “You’re right.”
Grant pulled a chair from the lounge.
June remained standing.
“Did Mom think Aunt Celeste stole money?”
“Yes,” Grant said.
“Did you believe her?”
“I believed she had concerns.”
“That means no.”
Grant nodded once.
“At first, no.”
“Why?”
“Because Celeste is my sister.”
“That’s dumb.”
“Yes.”
Nora looked at him in surprise.
Grant said, “It was.”
June tugged at the black cord holding the locket.
“Did Mom die because of it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she did?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re doing the adult answer.”
“I know.”
“Do better.”
Grant looked at his daughter.
The train was quiet around them.
Finally he said, “The police investigated the crash. They found no evidence another vehicle forced her off the road. There were no signs someone tampered with the car that they could establish. The weather was bad. She was driving too fast for the curve.”
May you like
June swallowed.
“So it was an accident.”
