Chapter 6: What Daniel Did Before
I met Sebastian at a parking garage on Michigan Avenue — neutral ground, no restaurants, no lobbies where someone might recognize him.
He was already there when I arrived, leaning against his car with his phone face-down on the hood.
He looked like he hadn't slept.
He handed me a folder without preamble.
I found this in Daniel's home office last night, he said.
He keeps paper copies of everything.
Old habit from our father.
I opened it.
The first page was a legal settlement document.
The names had been redacted, but the structure was familiar — paternity acknowledgment, custody arrangement, non-disclosure agreement.
Identical language to the filing Carol had shown me that morning.
This isn't mine, I said.
No, Sebastian said.
It's from seven years ago.
Before you and I were married.
There was a woman named Claire Ashworth.
She worked for the Carter Foundation.
She and I — it was brief.
Three months.
Daniel ended it.
I looked up.
She was pregnant?
Sebastian nodded.
I didn't know until last night.
Daniel handled it.
He told me at the time that she had resigned and moved to Seattle for a family matter.
I never questioned it.
I turned to the second page.
It was a wire transfer record.
A substantial sum, paid from a Carter family subsidiary account to a law firm — Hargrove and Laine.
The same firm, I said.
The same firm, he confirmed.
Daniel has been using them for years.
They specialize in making problems disappear quietly.
He brings them in, they apply pressure, the woman settles, signs the NDA, and disappears.
How many times?
Sebastian's expression was answer enough.
More than once, he said.
I closed the folder.
Does Claire Ashworth know you know?
No.
Do you know where she is?
He reached into his coat pocket and set a business card on the hood of the car.
She's not in Seattle, he said.
She's been in Oak Park for the last six years.
She runs a small accounting firm.
She has a son.
I picked up the card.
How old?
Six, Sebastian said.
His name is James.
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
Sebastian, I said.
Did you know about any of this?
Any part of it?
He met my eyes.
No, he said.
And I understand if you don't believe that.
But no.
I studied his face.
Five years ago I would have known immediately whether he was telling the truth.
Now I had to work harder at it.
I believed him.
I don't know yet if that's enough, I said.
He nodded once.
I know.
I put the business card in my bag.
I have something to tell you too, I said.
I met with a woman this morning.
Margaret Holt.
Sebastian's head came up sharply.
Margaret— she worked for my mother.
She has documentation, I said.
Phone logs.
The letter authorizing the lock change.
A photograph of Olivia in the hospital waiting room taken two minutes before the recording starts.
Sebastian turned away.
He put both hands on the roof of his car and stood there for a moment with his back to me.
Daniel filed that custody petition, I said.
Not you.
And if I don't respond to the settlement offer by Friday, he's planning to call DCFS with an anonymous tip about my home environment.
Sebastian turned around.
He's not going to do that, he said.
His voice had changed.
Sebastian—
Hannah.
He is not going to do that.
His jaw was set in a way I recognized.
It was the same expression he wore in board meetings when a decision had already been made and the conversation was over.
What are you going to do?
I said.
He picked up his phone from the hood of the car.
I'm going to call my brother, he said.
And I'm going to give him exactly one chance to withdraw that filing himself.
And if he doesn't?
Sebastian looked at me.
Then everything goes to the press, he said.
The recording.
Margaret's documents.
Claire Ashworth's settlement.
All of it.
Every journalist who has ever written about the Carter family will have it in their inbox by morning.
He's your brother, I said.
He was, Sebastian said.
What he did to you — what he did to Claire — that's not family.
That's management.
He dialed.
The phone rang twice before Daniel picked up.
I stood beside the car and listened to Sebastian Carter tell his brother exactly what he had found, exactly what I had, and exactly what would happen if Daniel did not withdraw the filing by end of business that day.
Daniel said something I couldn't hear.
Sebastian's voice stayed level.
That's not a negotiation, Daniel, he said.
That's a courtesy call.
He ended the call and looked at me.
He'll withdraw it, Sebastian said.
How do you know?
Because Daniel has spent his entire life protecting the Carter name, he said.
He's not going to let it burn for Olivia Bennett.
My phone buzzed.
Carol Reyes.
I answered it.
Hannah, she said.
The custody petition was just withdrawn.
Filed two minutes ago.
I looked at Sebastian.
He was already looking at me.
That's the easy part, I said to Carol.
Keep the fraud complaint moving forward.
She paused.
Are you sure?
Once that's filed—
I'm sure, I said.
I hung up.
Sebastian was quiet for a moment.
Olivia doesn't know yet, he said.
May you like
No, I said.
She doesn't.
