Chapter 8: What He Said in the Car
The car was quiet and dark, moving through streets that had emptied out past two in the morning.
Julian sat across from Elena in the back seat.
He didn't look at his phone.
He didn't speak immediately.
He watched the city go past for a while, and Elena let him.
Then he said, "My father is still alive."
Elena turned to look at him.
"He retired eight years ago.
He lives in Vermont.
He calls me on Sunday mornings and asks about the company, and I give him a version of the truth that doesn't worry him." Julian paused.
"I'm going to have to call him tomorrow and give him a version that does."
"I'm sorry," Elena said.
"He'll handle it.
He's handled worse." A pause.
"He never trusted Richard the way I did.
He said once — just once, about fifteen years ago — that Richard had a talent for being in the room when things went wrong.
I thought he meant Richard was unlucky.
I understand now that he meant something else."
Elena watched the streetlights pass.
"I want to tell you something," Julian said.
"And I want you to let me finish before you say anything."
"All right."
"I've been running Vance Global for nine years.
In that time I have been careful about almost everything — contracts, partnerships, legal exposure, board relationships.
I have been careful about almost everything except the people closest to me." He looked at his hands.
"I trusted Richard because he was my brother and because it was easier than examining what I actually knew about him.
I trusted Vanessa because she was introduced by someone I trusted and because I was — I was tired of being alone, and she was very good at being exactly what I wanted to see."
Elena said nothing.
"You knocked a glass out of my hand in front of a hundred and fifty people," Julian said.
"You lost your job.
You were offered twenty thousand dollars to disappear and you said no.
You stood in a corridor at two in the morning and told me to save my anger for the person who designed the plan, when you had just found out that the same plan had used your mother's name to make you the fall person." He looked at her.
"I don't know how to account for that kind of person.
I'm not sure I've met one before."
"You've met Priya," Elena said.
He almost smiled.
"I've met Priya."
The car turned onto the north side, and the streets narrowed.
Elena could see the lights of St.
Aurelius two blocks ahead — the upper floors always lit, the way hospitals always were.
"My father thinks I'm working a hotel event tonight," she said.
"He'll be awake.
He doesn't sleep well."
"Does he know what you do to cover his bills?"
"He knows I work.
He doesn't know how much." She paused.
"He'd insist on leaving the center if he knew the full number.
He'd rather be uncomfortable than be a burden.
So I don't tell him the full number."
"That sounds like someone who raised a daughter who turns down twenty thousand dollars on principle."
Elena looked at him.
"Don't make it sound noble.
It was also stubborn."
"Those aren't opposites."
The car stopped outside St.
Aurelius.
The night entrance was lit, a single nurse visible through the glass doors.
Julian said, "I'm going to deal with the legal situation over the next several days.
Richard's attorney will try to complicate it.
Vanessa's cooperation will help, but it won't be clean." He paused.
"When it's done — when the formal charges are filed and the company situation is stabilized — I'd like to call you.
Not about any of this.
Just to call."
Elena looked at the entrance.
At the nurse moving behind the glass.
At the light in the window on the third floor that she knew was her father's room.
"You can call," she said.
"Thank you."
She opened the door.
The night air was cool and smelled like rain that had fallen earlier and dried.
She stepped out, then turned back.
"Julian."
He looked at her.
"Get some sleep," she said.
"Whatever happens tomorrow — you're still here to deal with it.
That matters."
He nodded once.
She walked through the entrance.
The nurse at the desk looked up and smiled the way nurses do at people they recognize — a small, tired, genuine smile.
Elena signed the after-hours visitor log and took the elevator to the third floor.
Her father was awake, sitting up in bed with a paperback open on his lap and his reading glasses pushed up on his forehead.
He looked at her uniform and then at her face.
"Long night?" he said.
"Very long."
"You look like you've been through something."
"I have." She sat in the chair beside his bed.
"I'll tell you about it.
Not all of it tonight.
But some."
He closed the paperback.
He took his glasses off his forehead and set them on the nightstand.
He looked at her the way fathers do when they have decided to listen for as long as it takes.
May you like
"Start wherever you want," he said.
She started at the beginning.
