Chương 5
Vanessa sat in a chair beneath an oversized painting of a horse. “Twenty-three days ago.”
He looked at her. “That is not helpful.”
“It’s a date.”
“You’re taking her side now?”
“I’m reading the document.”
Robert leaned over the front desk, trying to make the clerk disclose who had paid for the rooms. The clerk, who had worked through two wedding parties and a plumbing leak that week, repeated that she could not discuss another guest’s payment information.
“I am not another guest,” Robert said. “I am her father.”
The clerk looked at the reservation again. “Colonel Carter is not listed as a guest.”
Aunt Louise muttered, “Well, that seems to be the theme.”
Margaret almost laughed. The sound rose and became a cough.
Upstairs, Daniel opened his suitcase on the bed and searched through shirts, charging cables, and travel receipts. Vanessa stood in the doorway.
“What are you looking for?”
“My office keys.”
“You left them with the receptionist.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You texted me a picture because you thought the key tag made you look organized.”
He stopped.
Vanessa folded her arms. “Did you know she had a buyer?”
“No.”
“Did you know the notice was final?”
“She’s sent dramatic letters before.”
“One letter. At Thanksgiving. And she did not send it. She said it at dinner after you called her a glorified renter.”
“That was a joke.”
“No one laughed.”
“Dad laughed.”
“Your father coughs when he’s uncomfortable. You count it as laughter.”
Daniel zipped the suitcase hard enough to catch a shirt sleeve.
Vanessa watched him free the fabric. His fingers were unsteady.
“Did you tell Robert the notice was withdrawn?”
“I said Nathan was open to discussion.”
“Were you speaking to Nathan?”
“I left messages.”
“Did he return them?”
Daniel looked at her.
“No,” she said. “Of course he didn’t.”
He went to the window. Twelve floors below, cars moved along the boulevard. The city looked indifferent and expensive.
“She wouldn’t have sold if we’d been home,” he said.
Vanessa sat on the edge of the bed. “That’s why you didn’t tell anyone.”
“I didn’t believe her.”
“You believed enough to keep it quiet.”
“What would you have done? Canceled the trip? Told Mom on the plane? Made Dad beg?”
“I might have packed differently.”
Daniel turned. “That’s your concern?”
“My concern is that every dress I own is in a storage unit, and my husband is still lying while I’m wearing yesterday’s underwear.”
He looked away.
Vanessa’s panic had not arrived as screaming. It had come as inventory. Toothbrush. Medication. Laptop charger. Shoes suitable for something other than an overnight flight. The practical details lined up because the larger reality would not fit in her head.
She removed the pearl necklace and placed it on the nightstand.
“Show me the notices,” she said.
“I don’t have them.”
“Daniel.”
“I threw them away.”
“All of them?”
He rubbed his jaw.
Vanessa stood. “Where?”
He said nothing.
“Where are they?”
“In my desk.”
“At the office?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’re going there.”
“We need to call counsel.”
“We need to know what you hid.”
Robert entered without knocking. “Emily still hasn’t called.”
“Dad,” Daniel began.
Robert held up one hand. “I spoke to Martin Geller.”
Vanessa knew the name. He had handled a zoning dispute for the company fifteen years earlier and had since retired to Arizona.
“He says there may be grounds to reverse the sale,” Robert continued. “Undue influence. Abuse of a confidential relationship. Possibly fraud.”
“By whom?” Vanessa asked.
“Emily.”
“For buying a house from a bank?”
“For taking advantage of us during a financial crisis.”
Daniel seized the possibility. “Exactly.”
Vanessa looked between them. “You both had separate lawyers at the closing.”
Robert’s face hardened. “You don’t know what happened.”
“I know the attorney’s name is on the agreement.”
“That agreement was never meant to be permanent.”
“Was that written down?”
“It was understood.”
“By Emily?”
“She’s my daughter.”
Vanessa picked up her handbag. “That isn’t an answer.”
The Carter Development office occupied the second floor of a brick building above an orthodontist. When Daniel arrived, the receptionist was eating yogurt at her desk and watching a silent video on her phone.
“You’re back early,” she said.
“We are not back early.”
She glanced at Vanessa’s cream suit and the suitcase still in the car outside. “Okay.”
Daniel unlocked his office.
The notices sat in the bottom drawer beneath a stack of restaurant menus, exactly where he had left them.
Vanessa spread them across the desk by date.
The first terminated the occupancy license effective in sixty days. The second confirmed that the property would be listed for sale. The third advised that a contract had been accepted and identified the closing date. Each included instructions for collecting personal property. Each had been sent to Robert and Margaret at the house, Daniel at the office, and all three by email.
“Your father’s letter?” Vanessa asked.
Daniel opened another drawer.
The unopened envelopes were there.
Vanessa stared at him. “You took their mail?”
“I collect it when they travel.”
“They hadn’t left yet.”
“They were going to.”
“You signed for these before the trip and put them in your office.”
“I was handling it.”
“You did nothing.”
“I called Emily.”
“Did she answer?”
“No.”
“Did Nathan?”
“No.”
“Did you send a written objection?”
Daniel began gathering the letters.
Vanessa put her hand over them. “Don’t.”
“I need to give these to counsel.”
“You need to stop moving paper around as if paper is the problem.”
His eyes narrowed. “Be careful.”
“Of what?”
“You’re very comfortable criticizing decisions that paid for your life.”
The words were out before he could retrieve them.
May you like
Vanessa removed her hand.
For years, she had helped Daniel maintain the appearance that Carter Development remained one contract away from recovery. She hosted dinners, remembered clients’ children, and wore clothes that suggested prosperity without displaying price tags. She had also worked before their marriage, first in hotel management and later in event planning. Daniel had called her job exhausting, then unnecessary, then inconvenient. When she resigned, he celebrated by buying her the pearl necklace.
