Chapter 9: Gerald Makes a Call of His Own
Gerald Hartwell was seventy-one years old and had spent forty of those years building a company from a two-room office into something his sons had never fully appreciated.
He had changed his will not out of sentiment but out of clear-eyed assessment.
He had watched Thomas for a long time.
He had watched Daniel too, and Daniel was not without fault, but Daniel had married well and was learning.
The baby had made Gerald certain.
He listened to Daniel and Claire together on the phone without interrupting.
When they finished, he asked three questions.
"Is Maya still in the house?"
"Yes," Claire said.
"Is the footage secured?"
"I copied it to two drives last night," Daniel said.
"And emailed it to myself."
"Good." A pause.
"Thomas called me yesterday morning.
He told me Diane had witnessed something concerning at your house.
He was very careful with his words.
He said he was worried about the people you had working around the baby."
Claire closed her eyes briefly.
"He was setting the story up," Daniel said.
"Yes.
I told him I'd look into it.
I didn't tell him I'd be calling you first." Another pause.
"I'm going to make another call this morning.
To my lawyer.
And then I'm going to call Thomas."
"Dad, you don't have to—"
"I'm not doing it for you," Gerald said, not unkindly.
"I'm doing it because a woman who jumped into a pool to save my grandson was nearly destroyed for it.
And because my son used that moment as a chess piece." His voice was steady and final.
"That is not something I'm willing to overlook."
The call ended.
Daniel set the phone on the table.
He looked at Claire.
"He's going to cut Thomas out entirely," he said.
"I know."
"That wasn't what I wanted."
"I know that too." Claire touched his arm briefly.
"But it's what Thomas chose."
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Upstairs, the baby made a small sound through the monitor — not crying, just the soft noise of waking up, of being alive and unaware of everything that had turned on the axis of his forty-seven seconds underwater.
Maya was already moving toward the stairs before either of them asked.
