Chapter 8: What Harold Hadn't Said
We sat in Harold's car in the car park beneath Grace's building.
The engine was off.
The cold settled in slowly.
"When Robert first brought me the bank records in August," Harold said, "I didn't go straight to a solicitor.
I went to Daniel."
I looked at him.
"I gave him the chance to come clean.
I told him I had seen the records.
I told him I knew about the forgery.
I gave him two weeks to tell you himself and begin making it right." Harold's hands were on the steering wheel, not gripping it, just resting.
"He told me he would.
He said he needed a little time to find the right moment."
"He didn't tell me."
"No.
He called Robert instead and told him to back off.
He told Robert that I had agreed to let it go." Harold paused.
"Robert called me.
That was when I understood that Daniel had no intention of telling you anything."
"So you started the legal process."
"Yes.
But it took another six weeks to get the transfer deed properly drawn.
And during those six weeks—" He stopped.
"Harold."
"During those six weeks, Miriam came to me.
She knew I had confronted Daniel.
He had told her.
She came to me alone, without him knowing, and she asked me to stop."
The car was very quiet.
"She said if I pursued it, she would tell you something.
About me." He looked at the steering wheel.
"Something from a long time ago.
Before you and Daniel were married.
Before any of this."
"What did she say she would tell me?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"That the reason I was so determined to protect you — the reason I had always been kinder to you than to anyone else in that house — was not simply because I thought you were treated unfairly." He paused.
"She said I had feelings for you that weren't appropriate.
That I had always been too close to you.
That if it came out, it would make everything I was doing look like something other than what it was."
I sat very still.
"Is that true?" I said.
"That I have feelings for you?" He looked at me directly.
"No.
Not in the way she means." A pause.
"You remind me of someone.
My sister.
She d*ed when she was thirty-one.
She married a man who treated her the way Daniel treats you, and I didn't act.
I told myself it wasn't my place." His voice was even, but something underneath it wasn't.
"I was not going to do that again."
The cold in the car had deepened.
"She was going to use that against you," I said.
"She was going to use it against both of us.
Make it look like the transfer deed was motivated by something improper.
Undermine Grace's case before it started." He finally turned the key in the ignition.
The heater came on.
"That's what her text means.
She's telling you not to trust me.
She's hoping you'll pull back."
I looked at my phone.
Miriam's message still on the screen.
I typed back two words: *I know.*
Then I put the phone in my pocket.
"Does Grace know about this?" I said.
"I told her this morning, before you arrived."
"And?"
"She said it was a pressure tactic with no legal weight.
And that if Miriam repeated it publicly, it would constitute defamation." He pulled out of the parking space.
"She also said it tells us that Miriam is more involved in this than we initially thought."
"How involved?"
"The audit found a secondary account.
Small transfers, irregular intervals.
The account is in Miriam's name."
My breath came out slowly.
"She knew about the forgery," I said.
"More than knew," Harold said.
"She may have suggested it."
The city moved past the windows.
Christmas decorations still up everywhere.
Shop fronts dark.
Pavements empty.
"Harold," I said.
"I'm sorry.
About your sister."
He didn't answer immediately.
"Her name was Ruth," he said.
"She would have liked you."
I looked out the window.
Neither of us said anything else for a while.
But when we stopped at a red light, Harold's phone rang through the car speakers.
The name on the screen was Robert.
Harold answered.
"Tell me," he said.
Robert's voice came through clearly.
"The bank just confirmed," Robert said.
"The fraud examiner is willing to provide a formal statement.
And Daniel's solicitor called me twenty minutes ago."
"What did he say?"
"He said Daniel wants to meet.
Not through lawyers.
In person.
Just him and Emily."
Harold looked at me.
I shook my head.
"She's not meeting him alone," Harold said.
"I told him that," Robert said.
"He said—" A pause.
"He said if Emily won't meet him, he's going to tell her something himself.
Something he says she deserves to hear directly.
He said it changes the shape of everything."
The light turned green.
Harold didn't move.
"What does he say it is?" Harold said.
"He wouldn't tell me," Robert said.
"But he sounded—" Another pause.
May you like
"He didn't sound angry.
He sounded like a man who's out of options and knows it."
