Chapter 7: The Lobby
Daniel's assistant appeared in the doorway.
Her face was carefully neutral, which meant it wasn't.
"Mr.
Mercer is downstairs," she said.
"He's asking to come up."
Nobody moved for a moment.
Chloe's hands went flat on the table.
"He followed me," she said.
"Or he guessed," Julian said.
Daniel stood up.
"He has no legal right to enter this office.
I'll have security hold him in the lobby." He looked at me.
"But he knows you're here.
He knows Chloe is here.
Whatever he came to say, he'll find another way to say it."
His phone rang.
He glanced at the screen and answered immediately, turning slightly away.
I watched his shoulders.
"Yes." A pause.
"When?" Another pause.
"All right.
Keep him there."
He hung up and turned back to us.
"He's not asking to come up anymore," Daniel said.
"He's asking to speak with Evelyn.
Alone.
In the lobby."
"No," Julian said immediately.
"I'll go," I said.
Julian looked at me.
"Evelyn—"
"He's not going to do anything in a lobby with security cameras and a building full of witnesses." I stood up.
"And I want to hear what he thinks he still has."
Daniel hesitated, then nodded.
"I'll have someone positioned near the elevator bank.
Five minutes.
If it goes longer, I'm coming down."
I took the elevator alone.
Marcus was standing near the front desk when the doors opened.
He was still in last night's tuxedo shirt, the jacket gone, the tie loose.
He looked like a man who had not slept, which was accurate.
He looked at me the way a person looks at something they've just realized they fundamentally miscalculated.
"You should have told me," he said.
"Told you what?"
"That you had the drive.
Years ago.
We could have handled this quietly."
"There was nothing to handle quietly, Marcus.
You committed fraud."
His jaw tightened.
"You don't know everything that was happening with the company at that time.
There were pressures—"
"There are always pressures," I said.
"That's not a defense."
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"I will give you whatever you want.
Name it.
A settlement.
A number.
Whatever Julian's firm would have made on the acquisition — I'll match it personally.
Just pull the documents back."
"The documents are already with a federal attorney."
Something moved behind his eyes.
Not fear exactly.
Calculation.
"Then I'll make the bar complaint permanent," he said.
"I have more than one contact, Evelyn.
I will tie up your license for years.
You'll spend more time defending yourself than practicing law."
"You already tried that this morning.
Daniel filed a protective motion before nine o'clock."
His mouth opened slightly.
"And Chloe is upstairs right now," I said, "giving a full statement.
Including the documents about Patricia Hollis."
The name landed like a physical thing.
His face went completely still.
"You don't want to do this," he said.
His voice had dropped to almost nothing.
"I didn't start it," I said.
"Patricia Hollis didn't start it.
You built this, Marcus.
Every piece of it.
For nine years."
He stared at me for a long moment.
Then something in his posture changed — a small collapse, barely visible, like a structure losing one critical support.
"What do you want?" he said.
"What do you actually want from me?"
"Nothing," I said.
"I haven't wanted anything from you for five years.
This isn't about what I want.
This is about what you did to people who trusted you."
I turned toward the elevator.
"Evelyn." His voice stopped me.
"I did love you.
In the beginning.
I want you to know that."
I looked back at him once.
"I know," I said.
"That doesn't change anything."
The elevator doors opened.
I stepped in.
When they closed, I let out one slow breath.
May you like
My hands were steady.
Upstairs, Daniel was already on the phone with the SEC.
