Chapter 17 - The Man in the Gray Suit
Samuel Drake did not run.
That almost made it worse.
He sat in Nora’s conference room in the same gray suit he always wore and looked at the bank record for a long time.
Then he removed his glasses.
“I wondered when this would surface.”
Nora’s voice went cold. “That is not the response of an innocent man.”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“Why did Evelyn send you $2.4 million?”
“She didn’t.”
Priya pushed the routing record closer.
“Samuel.”
He shook his head.
“Arthur did.”
My stomach tightened.
“My father?”
“He instructed Evelyn to route the payment through one of her private structures because he did not want it connected to him.”
“For what?”
Drake looked at me.
“To purchase evidence.”
Silence.
“What evidence?”
“Proof that senior Voss executives were bribing procurement officers overseas.”
I sat down.
“Did Adrian know?”
“Not at first.”
“At first?”
Drake’s mouth tightened.
“Arthur confronted him.”
“When?”
“Four months before Arthur died.”
My ears rang.
“What happened?”
“Adrian promised to clean house. He fired two executives. Then he quietly rehired one as a consultant.”
I shut my eyes.
Of course he did.
“Why didn’t my father expose him?”
Drake looked tired.
“Because you had just told Arthur you were pregnant.”
I stopped breathing.
“He thought a scandal would destroy your marriage before your child was born.”
Anger came so fast I stood up.
“So he protected Adrian.”
“Yes.”
“And built a secret mechanism to control him instead.”
“Yes.”
“Everyone in my life decided secrecy was love.”
Drake looked down.
No one argued.
Then Ethan, who had been in the hallway with Luis, pushed the door open.
He had heard the last sentence.
“Mom?”
I turned.
His face was worried.
I crouched in front of him.
“I’m okay.”
He frowned. “That’s not true.”
I laughed unexpectedly.
A terrible, shaky laugh.
“No. It’s not.”
He put his arms around my neck.
I held him.
For once, I did not explain anything.
Behind us, Dana Cho entered the room.
She spoke quietly to Nora.
Nora’s expression changed.
“What?” I asked.
Dana answered.
“Evelyn has agreed to surrender.”
A breath left me.
Then Dana added, “But she gave us one condition before she talks.”
“What condition?”
May you like
“She wants Ethan present.”
