Chapter 10: The Morning It Became Public
The story appeared in the financial press on a Tuesday.
I was dropping Maisie at school when my phone began to fill with notifications.
I pulled over two blocks from the school gate and read the first paragraph of the article.
*A formal inquiry has been opened by the state attorney general's office into Harrow Urban founder Grant Ellison and attorney Clifford Pryce in connection with alleged fraudulent misrepresentation of investor interests across multiple real-estate transactions spanning nearly a decade.*
I set the phone face-down on the passenger seat.
I sat there for a moment.
The school run traffic moved around me.
A woman walked past with a stroller.
A dog pulled at its lead.
I picked the phone back up and called Theo.
"I saw it," he said before I could speak.
"Is it accurate?"
"From what Grace told us — yes.
The AG's office must have confirmed the inquiry to the press." A pause.
"How are you?"
I thought about it honestly.
"I don't know yet."
"Come home when you're ready.
There's no rush."
I drove home.
Theo was in the kitchen.
He poured coffee and set it in front of me without asking.
Grace called at nine.
"The inquiry is confirmed and public," she said.
"Grant's attorneys have issued a statement calling it politically motivated and factually unsupported.
Pryce's firm has issued no statement.
The bar complaint is now also a matter of public record."
"What happens next?"
"The AG's office will conduct its own investigation.
That runs parallel to our civil action.
We don't control their timeline, but our subpoena production feeds directly into their record." She paused.
"Grant's attorneys called this morning.
They want to discuss resolution again."
"The same offer?"
"No.
A larger one." She named a figure.
It was significant.
It was also, I noted, less than what the Harborstone interest alone should have returned.
"Still no," I said.
"I expected that." Grace's voice was even.
"I want you to know — the public inquiry changes his position considerably.
His joint venture with Matthew's firm is effectively dead.
Harrow Urban's existing lenders are reviewing their exposure.
His new attorneys are very good, but they are working against a documentary record that is very clear."
"And Pryce?"
"The bar has suspended his license pending the outcome of the complaint.
His firm has placed him on administrative leave." A pause.
"Paul Sefton's statement was filed yesterday.
It's part of the record."
I looked out the kitchen window at the garden.
The October roses were nearly finished — a few last blooms holding on at the edges.
"Celeste called me last night," I said.
"What did she say?"
"She said she's leaving him.
She said she wanted me to know before it was in the press." I paused.
"She said she was sorry again.
She said she knew that didn't fix anything."
Grace was quiet for a moment.
"How did you respond?"
"I told her I hoped she and the baby would be all right." I looked at the roses.
"I meant it."
"I know you did," Grace said.
Theo was watching me from across the kitchen.
He had heard enough of the call to follow it.
When I set the phone down, he said: "Are you all right?"
"Yes," I said.
And then, because it was true and because he deserved the full answer: "I keep thinking about the woman I was when I signed those documents.
How tired I was.
How much I just wanted it to be over."
He came around the table and sat beside me.
"She did the right things," he said.
"She kept the records.
She showed up when Matthew needed to find her.
She said yes when it would have been easier to go home."
I looked at him.
"She also found you," I said.
He smiled — quiet, real, the one he didn't perform for anyone else.
"She did," he said.
"Terrible judgment on her part."
I laughed.
May you like
It surprised me — the ease of it, the way it moved through the room and settled.
Outside, the last roses held their color in the flat grey light.
