Chapter 10: The Last Honest Thing
I walked into the hallway and closed the kitchen door behind me.
"How did you get this number?" I said.
"Max's phone syncs to a shared family account.
Old habit." A pause.
"I'm not calling to threaten you.
I want you to know that."
"Then why are you calling?"
"Because I think there's a version of this that doesn't have to go where it's going." His voice was measured.
Practiced.
"Max made some poor decisions.
So did I.
But the audit is three weeks away and there's still time to correct the records, repay the shortfall, and close this quietly.
No investigators.
No licenses at risk.
No family in the news."
"You want me to stop talking to Patricia Howe."
A brief silence.
"I want everyone to come out of this intact."
"Everyone meaning you."
"Meaning all of us." His tone shifted slightly.
Warmer.
Persuasive.
"You have a daughter.
Max has a career.
I have a family.
None of us benefit from this becoming a legal matter."
"The money in Lily's account," I said.
"Is that part of the shortfall?"
"It can be replaced.
Fully.
Within the week."
"And the other two accounts?
The other brokers whose money you walked away from?"
Silence.
"I don't know what Max told you," he said carefully.
"He told me enough." I leaned against the wall.
"Daniel, I want to ask you something and I want you to answer me honestly.
Just once."
"All right."
"Did you know, when you brought Max into this, that it was going to end this way?"
A long pause.
"I thought it would close cleanly," he said.
"That's not what I asked."
Another pause.
Longer.
"I thought if it didn't close cleanly," he said, "there would be enough distance between my role and the paperwork."
There it was.
"Goodbye, Daniel," I said.
"Wait—"
I ended the call.
I stood in the hallway for a moment.
Then I went back into the kitchen and told Max everything Daniel had said.
He listened without interrupting.
When I finished, he was quiet for a long time.
"He was going to let me take it," he said finally.
"If it went sideways.
He was always going to let me take it."
"Yes."
Max looked at the table.
"I've been covering for him for months.
I kept thinking — he's my brother.
He wouldn't do that to me."
"I know."
"I was wrong about a lot of things."
"Yes," I said again.
"You were."
He looked up.
"I'm going to call Patricia myself.
In the morning.
I'm going to tell her everything — the full structure, Daniel's role, the other accounts, all of it.
And I'm going to cooperate with whatever comes next."
I looked at him.
"That's the right thing to do," I said.
"It might not save my license."
"It might not."
"It might not save us either."
I sat down across from him.
The kitchen was quiet.
The dishes were done.
Lily was asleep upstairs.
"I don't know what saves us," I said honestly.
"I don't know if we're saveable right now.
But I know that the only way I can even think about that question is if I'm standing next to someone who tells me the truth." I looked at him.
"Can you be that person?"
He held my gaze.
"I'm going to try," he said.
It wasn't a promise.
It wasn't a guarantee.
But it was the first completely honest thing he'd said to me in months, and I felt it differently than all the rest.
May you like
"Okay," I said.
"Then we start there."
