Chapter 7: The Question That Ends Everything
I chose Saturday morning.
Mason was at his friend Tyler's house until noon.
The dishes from breakfast were still on the table.
Ryan was reading something on his phone, relaxed, unhurried, in the particular way of a man who believes the hard part of the week is behind him.
I sat down across from him and put the envelope on the table.
He looked at it.
Then at me.
"What is that?"
"Project reports," I said.
"Eleven of them.
Seven have your signature."
The color left his face in a single, visible wave.
"Claire—"
"I need you to tell me the truth.
All of it.
Right now.
Not the version that protects you.
Not the version that protects Lauren.
The truth."
He put his phone down.
He didn't speak.
"Did you know what Lauren was doing?"
Silence.
"Ryan."
"It's complicated."
"It's not," I said.
"Did you know?"
He pressed his hands flat on the table.
"I found out.
Not at the beginning.
About eight months in, I started noticing things in the reports that didn't match what I remembered signing.
I asked Lauren about it.
She said it was a formatting issue, a system update, that the numbers had been adjusted at the divisional level."
"And you believed her."
"I wanted to believe her." His voice was quiet.
"The promotion was real, Claire.
The salary, the title — it would have changed everything for us.
I told myself it was a reporting discrepancy.
I told myself it wasn't my problem."
"Your signature is on those documents."
"I know."
"Three of them look forged."
He closed his eyes.
"I know."
"You know," I repeated.
"You knew your signature had been forged and you said nothing."
"I was scared." He opened his eyes.
"I know how that sounds.
I was scared and I was selfish and I told myself it would work itself out."
I looked at him across the table.
The man I had made coffee for every morning for eleven years.
The man who had walked ahead of me on the sand while I dragged the cooler.
"There's a board audit in October," I said.
He went very still.
"They will look at the senior project manager first.
That's the role Lauren is about to give you.
Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
The stillness broke.
He stood up fast, the chair scraping back.
"She wouldn't—"
"She already has," I said.
"The reports exist.
Your name is on them.
She has been building this for eighteen months.
You are the exit strategy, Ryan."
He walked to the window.
His hand went to the back of his neck.
"I have to call her."
"You're not calling her."
"Claire, I need to—"
"You're going to sit back down," I said, "and you're going to listen to me.
Because I have spent the last week doing what you should have done eight months ago.
And right now, the only thing standing between you and a very serious conversation with a board of directors is the fact that I found out before they did."
He turned from the window.
He looked at me differently than he had looked at me in a long time.
He sat back down.
I told him about Diane.
I told him about Gerald Fitch.
I told him about the notation on page two of report four, the different pen, the initials.
He listened without interrupting.
When I finished, the kitchen was very quiet.
"You did all of this," he said.
"For me."
"I did it for our family," I said.
"That's not the same thing as doing it for you.
Not right now."
He absorbed that.
"What do I do?"
"Monday morning, you call Gerald Fitch.
You tell him everything you just told me.
You do not contact Lauren.
You do not go into the office until Gerald tells you it's safe to do so.
You do not accept the promotion."
"If I don't accept it—"
"If you accept it, you own every report underneath it.
That's what she's counting on."
He was quiet for a long moment.
"I'm sorry, Claire."
I stood up and picked up my coffee cup from the table.
"I know," I said.
I went to the sink.
I rinsed the cup.
I stood there with the water running and didn't turn around.
Behind me, I heard him pick up his phone.
I heard him set it back down without dialing.
That was the right choice.
It was the first right choice he'd made in eight months.
It was not enough.
May you like
Not yet.
But it was a start.
