Chương 8
Ava hated noticing any of that.
Vanessa’s eyes dropped briefly toward Ava’s abdomen, now flat beneath a black blouse.
“You had the baby.”
Ava sat.
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yes.”
“What did you name her?”
Martin touched Vanessa’s arm.
“Let’s not.”
Vanessa pulled away.
“I asked a question.”
Ava looked at her.
“Grace.”
Something flickered across Vanessa’s face.
“Daniel liked that name.”
“No. He didn’t.”
For the first time, Vanessa almost smiled.
Then she remembered where they were.
The mediator began with rules nobody enjoyed but everybody needed.
People would not interrupt.
People could request private meetings.
Nobody had to agree to anything.
The goal was not to decide who had been the better person.
Vanessa stared at the table during that sentence.
The first hour accomplished almost nothing.
Martin argued that Daniel had been ill when the transfer occurred.
Leah produced the documentation concerning capacity.
Martin said the family context remained relevant.
Leah agreed and asked which context he meant.
The mediator asked Ava what she wanted.
Ava surprised herself.
“I want to know what Vanessa thought she was protecting when she hit me.”
Martin began to object.
Vanessa said, “My life.”
The room went quiet.
Ava looked at her.
Vanessa’s hands were clasped too tightly.
“My company was failing,” she said.
Martin leaned toward her.
“Vanessa.”
“Everybody already knows.”
Ava did not.
Not completely.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Of course you didn’t. Daniel made sure you never had to know how ugly anything was.”
“That is not how I remember my marriage.”
“I’m not talking about your marriage.”
“You just did.”
The mediator raised a hand.
Vanessa leaned back.
Her jaw worked for a moment.
Then she said, “I lost two clients. Then another project got delayed. My divorce settlement was worse than I admitted. I had loans. Personal guarantees. Payroll.”
Ava said nothing.
“I asked Mom for help.”
“I know.”
Vanessa looked toward Martin.
He gave up trying to stop her.
“I wasn’t trying to steal the house.”
“You asked Eleanor to borrow against it.”
“I asked her to help me secure a loan.”
“With the house.”
“Yes.”
“That is borrowing against it.”
“I was going to repay it.”
Ava heard Daniel in her own answer before she said it.
“Everybody intends to repay it.”
Vanessa flinched.
He must have said the same thing.
“You sound like him.”
“I was afraid of that.”
For a second Vanessa looked almost human to Ava again.
Not safe.
Not innocent.
Human.
“He treated me like I was reckless,” Vanessa said.
“Were you?”
“That isn’t the point.”
“It seems close to the point.”
“He had money. He had the company. He had this house. Then he got you, and suddenly everything I had done wrong became evidence that I couldn’t be trusted with anything.”
Ava stared at her.
“That sounds like something you should have said to Daniel.”
“I did.”
“Then why did you hit me?”
Vanessa’s eyes shifted away.
Nobody moved.
The mediator waited.
Ava could hear an air conditioner somewhere in the ceiling.
Finally Vanessa said, “Because you were still there.”
Ava felt the words more deeply than the insults.
Vanessa rubbed one thumb over the other.
“He was dead. You were in his house. You were wearing his mother’s cardigan sometimes. You were meeting with his lawyer. People were asking you what should happen with company events. Mom was listening to you.”
“I was pregnant with his child.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that like it makes this better.”
“It doesn’t.”
Vanessa looked up.
“I walked into that house and it felt like he had replaced me while I was still standing in it.”
Ava sat back.
There was no grand revelation.
No hidden conspiracy.
No mysterious person behind Vanessa.
Just grief mixed with debt, resentment, shame, and a belief carried too long because everyone around her had found it easier not to correct it.
Martin spoke gently.
“Vanessa.”
She ignored him.
“I found the draft.”
Ava’s body went still.
“In Daniel’s study?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night I came for the scarf.”
“There was no scarf.”
“There was a scarf.”
Ava almost laughed at the absurdity.
“I did leave one. I just didn’t come back for it.”
“You searched his study.”
“Yes.”
“You took the draft.”
“I photographed it.”
“Where is the paper?”
“Still there when I left.”
Ava frowned.
Nathan had checked the study after the midnight entry and found nothing obviously disturbed.
“Where?”
“Bottom drawer of the built-in cabinet behind the desk.”
Ava thought of the jammed desk drawer she had forced open.
Wrong drawer.
“How did you know it was there?”
Vanessa looked at Eleanor’s empty chair as if her mother might somehow be sitting in it.
“Daniel told me once that he kept working papers there.”
Ava believed that.
Daniel had been careless about things he considered unimportant and obsessive about things everyone else forgot.
Vanessa continued.
“The draft said the house would be managed by the three of us. Me, Mom, you.”
“It was old.”
“I know that now.”
“What did you think the night you found it?”
“I thought you had changed it.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Then why are we here?”
Martin finally answered.
“Because the validity and circumstances of the later transfer remain subject to legitimate review.”
Leah said, “That was elegant.”
Martin ignored her.
Vanessa looked at Ava.
“Because if I drop this, I have nothing.”
Ava stared.
“You inherited millions.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Not shock.
Humiliation.
“I can’t access most of it.”
“Because it’s in trust.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel did that because of the debt.”
“He wanted to punish me.”
“Maybe.”
Vanessa blinked.
Martin looked at Ava.
So did Leah.
Ava continued.
“Maybe part of him did. He was not a saint.”
Vanessa’s mouth parted slightly.
May you like
Ava had never said anything like that in front of her.
“He was scared,” Ava said. “He was sick. He wanted to control what happened after he was gone because he couldn’t control what was happening to him. He made some good decisions. He made some cowardly ones.”
