Chapter 6: The Confrontation He Had Been Building Toward
Richard Hale's office was on the thirty-first floor of a building his company owned outright.
Nathan had been in this room before — twice, for merger discussions, seated across from Richard while lawyers arranged papers and assistants brought coffee.
He had always felt, in this room, that he was a guest.
That the terms of everything were already decided before he arrived.
He felt differently today.
Richard was standing at the window when Nathan walked in.
He didn't turn around immediately.
"I told you to take twenty-four hours," Richard said.
"I didn't need them."
Richard turned.
He was a large man, broad-shouldered, with the kind of face that had spent decades being agreed with.
He looked at Nathan with the particular patience of someone who believed time was always on his side.
"Sit down, Nathan."
"I'm fine standing."
A small pause.
Richard sat down himself, behind the desk, which Nathan understood was its own kind of message.
"You went to see Carol Briggs," Richard said.
"I did."
"She's a troubled woman.
She had documented mental health struggles during the custody proceedings.
Whatever she told you—"
"She gave me a signed statement from her former attorney.
She gave me court correspondence.
She gave me a letter from a clerk in Judge Paulson's office." Nathan set a folder on the desk.
"And she gave me a recording.
It's not admissible on its own.
But it's enough for a journalist to start asking questions."
Richard looked at the folder.
He didn't touch it.
"You're not a journalist."
"No.
But I know several.
And more relevantly, the state attorney general's office has an ongoing public corruption unit that has been looking for a thread into Judge Paulson's financial history for two years." Nathan paused.
"Daniel made a call this morning.
They're very interested in the consulting firm."
Something moved behind Richard's eyes.
Not fear exactly.
More like a man recalculating.
"You're making a significant mistake," Richard said.
"You have no idea how deep this goes or how many people are protected by the current arrangement.
If you pull this thread, you will not like what unravels."
"I'm sure."
"The merger collapses.
The company loses forty percent of its institutional backing within a quarter.
Your employees — several hundred of them — face real uncertainty."
"I've spoken to the board.
Three members this morning, four last night.
They're aware of the documents from my father's safe.
They're aware of the co-signed agreement." Nathan looked at Richard steadily.
"Two of them have already retained independent counsel."
Richard's jaw tightened.
Barely.
But enough.
"Victoria doesn't know you're here," he said.
"No."
"She would want you to be careful."
"Victoria stood in my kitchen with a hockey stick pointed at a four-year-old girl," Nathan said.
"I'm not particularly interested in what Victoria would want right now."
Richard stood.
He came around the desk slowly, the way large men move when they want you to feel the space they take up.
"I liked your father," he said.
"Edward was a practical man.
He understood that some things have to be managed so that everything else can function.
That's not cruelty.
That's how the world operates at this level."
"He threatened a twenty-three-year-old woman with losing her unborn child."
"He protected an empire."
"He wrote a letter confessing it," Nathan said.
"From inside his safe.
Which means he knew, at the end, that it wasn't something he could live with quietly."
Richard stopped.
That landed.
Nathan could see it land.
"Whatever he felt at the end," Richard said, "he made his choices.
And you have benefited from every one of them."
"I know that," Nathan said.
"That's not something I'm walking away from.
But I'm not continuing it." He picked up the folder from the desk.
"The attorney general's office gets everything tomorrow morning unless you withdraw the fabricated kjdnapping documents against Grace today.
Publicly.
In writing.
With a statement that they were filed in error."
"And if I don't?"
"Then Carol Briggs stands next to me at a press conference on Thursday and we let the journalists do what journalists do."
Richard looked at him for a long moment.
"You'd burn the company to the ground."
"I'd burn the part that was built on this," Nathan said.
"The rest of it I'll rebuild."
He walked to the door.
May you like
"You have until five o'clock," he said.
"I'll be with my daughter."
