Concern.
Then caution.
Grant looked toward the trees.
“You brought police.”
“I told you to come to them.”
“You don’t know who to trust.”
“Neither do you.”
He approached slowly.
“Do you have the page?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.”
Mara held up the folded copy but did not give it to him.
“Where are the documents?”
“In the car.”
“Bring them.”
“I need to know my mother is safe.”
“She is.”
“And Celeste?”
“In Nassau.”
Grant looked toward the river.
“She took the drive.”
“Why did she have access?”
“I gave it to her.”
“Why?”
“I thought Samuel was watching me.”
“So you trusted your mistress?”
“I trusted her to protect herself.”
“An interesting foundation for a relationship.”
His eyes flashed.
“This is not the time.”
“You chose the time.”
“Mara.”
The exhaustion in his voice almost sounded like the man from their early marriage.
Almost.
She looked at the bruise.
“Who hit you?”
“One of Samuel’s men.”
“Where?”
“At the airport.”
“You went after Celeste?”
“I went after the drive.”
“Why did you leave your vehicle?”
“They blocked me inside the garage. I got out through a service stairwell.”
“How did you get here?”
“My attorney arranged the car.”
Police would verify that.
Mara held the policy copy at her side.
“Did you take out this policy?”
Grant looked at it.
“Yes.”
“Did you forge my signature?”
“I signed through an authorization.”
“There was no authorization.”
“Samuel’s lawyer said the corporate guarantee documents covered it.”
“Did you read them?”
“No.”
Mara almost laughed.
Grant, who demanded she lose weight to represent his image, had risked twenty-five million dollars on paperwork he claimed not to have read.
“Why insure me?”
“Northstar required key-person coverage.”
“For an asset you told them you owned?”
His silence answered.
“You knew my death would solve the ownership problem.”
“No.”
“You were the beneficiary.”
“Harbor Light was.”
“You controlled Harbor Light.”
“At the time.”
“What does that mean?”
Grant looked behind him.
“We need to move.”
“We’re not moving.”
“Samuel knows I’m here.”
“Samuel is in Nassau.”
“He was in Nassau.”
Mara’s pulse sharpened.
“When did he return?”
“I don’t know. Celeste called me two hours ago.”
“What did she say?”
“That Samuel never planned to leave the drive alive.”
“The drive isn’t alive.”
“Voice recognition. Biometric encryption. My voice opens the first layer.”
“And the second?”
Grant looked at her.
“Yours.”
Mara became still.
“How?”
“Samples from company recordings.”
“You used my voice without permission.”
“I didn’t build it.”
“Who did?”
“Samuel.”
Thunder sounded closer.
Mara’s earpiece crackled.
Torres whispered, “Keep him in position.”
Grant took one more step.
“The drive contains payment records, city contacts, state officials, inspectors, shell companies. Everything.”
“Why did you collect it?”
“Insurance.”
“Against Samuel?”
“Against everyone.”
“You were involved.”
“Yes.”
The admission came without drama.
Mara felt the weight of it anyway.
“How involved?”
Grant looked down.
“I approved Harbor Light.”
“You forged my assignment.”
“Samuel’s people prepared it.”
“You signed the representation.”
“Yes.”
“You accepted Northstar’s money.”
“Yes.”
“You paid Samuel.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to blame me if the transfer was challenged.”
Grant looked at her.
“Yes.”
The wind pressed Mara’s blouse against the recording device.
Every word was being captured.
She should have felt satisfaction.
Instead, she felt grief stripped of sentiment.
Grant had not stumbled into corruption.
He had walked.
Step by step.
Signature by signature.
Lie by lie.
“You could have stopped,” she said.
“I thought I could control it.”
“You couldn’t control yourself.”
“I landed the contract.”
“You compromised the bidding process.”
“I saved the company.”
“You endangered everyone in it.”
“I did what was necessary.”
“There you are.”
Grant frowned.
“What?”
“The man you actually are.”
Pain moved across his face.
It might have been real.
That did not make it useful.
“I wasn’t always this,” he said.
“No.”
“You remember.”
“I remember.”
“We had nothing.”
“We had enough.”
“I was terrified every day.”
“So was I.”
“You never looked terrified.”
“I was busy solving the problems.”
Grant swallowed.
“I hated you for that.”
Mara stared at him.
The honesty surprised them both.
He continued.
“You walked into every crisis and knew what to do. Investors listened to you. Contractors trusted you. Even my own board waited to see what you thought.”
“So you tried to make me smaller.”
“At first, I just wanted something that was mine.”
“The company could have been ours.”
“I didn’t want ours.”
There it was.
The motive beneath the vanity.
Grant did not merely want success.
He wanted sole authorship.
Mara’s competence felt like theft to him because it prevented him from believing he had built himself alone.
Her body became the easiest place to punish her.
Something visible.
Something society allowed him to judge.
Something he could point at whenever her mind threatened him.
“You chose Celeste because she admired you,” Mara said.
“She needed me.”
“No. She reflected you.”
Grant looked away.
“Maybe.”
“And when the Northstar sale was about to close, you thought you had finally bought a life where no one knew how much of your success came from me.”
His eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
Mara nodded slowly.
Not because she forgave him.
Because the answer completed the picture.
Grant stepped closer.
“I regret what I said last night.”
“You regret the result.”
“I regret both.”
“Would you regret it if the contract had remained secure?”
He did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Mara raised the policy copy.
“Where are my father’s documents?”
Grant turned toward the sedan.
The rear door opened.
Celeste stepped out.
Mara heard Torres in her earpiece.
“Hold position.”
Celeste no longer wore the silver gown.
She wore jeans, a black shirt, and flat shoes. Her hair was tied back. A thin cut marked her lower lip.
She carried Grant’s black briefcase.
Grant stared at her.
“You said you were alone.”
Celeste looked toward the trees.
“None of us are alone.”
She approached Mara.
Grant stepped between them.
“Give me the drive.”
Celeste laughed once.
“You still think you’re in charge?”
“Celeste.”
“No.”
She looked at Mara.
“He told me the money was legal. He told me Samuel worked for him. He told me the documents proved you were stealing the company.”
Mara said nothing.
Celeste continued.
“When the party fell apart, Samuel sent me a message. He said Grant would blame me for the forged emails. He told me to bring the drive and he would protect me.”
“So you went with him.”
“Yes.”
“What happened in Nassau?”
“We never reached the hotel. Two men met us at a private hangar. Samuel told them I had copied the drive.”