Chapter 16 - The Conversation William Never Expected
William received me in the boardroom.
The same room where I had attended holiday lunches as a child.
He stood when I entered.
“Emma.”
He looked genuinely relieved.
That was his talent.
William could make deception look like kindness.
I sat across from him.
“I know who you are, Samuel.”
His expression did not change.
But one finger stopped tapping the table.
“That is an extraordinary accusation.”
“Celeste identified you.”
“Celeste is facing criminal charges.”
“My father identified you.”
“Your father has been legally dead for twelve years.”
Not that’s impossible.
Not he’s mistaken.
A legal argument.
Maya had told me guilty people often revealed themselves through the defense they chose.
I leaned forward.
“Why didn’t you board the plane?”
William smiled faintly.
“Jonathan told you I was supposed to?”
“Yes.”
“He always did enjoy partial truths.”
There it was.
An admission.
I kept my breathing steady.
William walked toward the window.
“Your grandfather was reckless.”
“My grandfather discovered theft.”
“He discovered a system that saved his company.”
“Then why did he die?”
William turned.
“Old men die.”
“And planes explode?”
His eyes hardened.
“I did not plant the device.”
“Martin?”
Silence.
“Did Martin plant it?”
William finally sat.
“Martin was never good at understanding limits.”
The wire beneath my blouse suddenly felt hot against my skin.
I asked carefully.
“So Martin went too far?”
“He repeatedly went too far.”
“Yet you kept him around.”
“Useful men are rarely pleasant.”
There.
Maya now had enough to connect William to Martin.
But I wanted more.
“Why target me?”
William sighed as if I were disappointing him.
“Because control of Carlisle should never have been placed in the hands of a child.”
“I’m twenty-eight.”
“You were a child when your grandfather built those trusts.”
“And now?”
“Now you are an emotional woman filing for divorce forty-eight hours before a major corporate transition.”
I nearly laughed.
Nathan slapped me.
William called me emotional.
Same contempt.
Better suit.
“You arranged Nathan.”
“I introduced opportunity.”
“You arranged my marriage.”
“I arranged proximity.”
His arrogance was finally speaking for him.
“You forged my father’s signature.”
“Martin handled documentation.”
“You forged mine.”
A pause.
Then William smiled.
“You signed more things than you remember.”
Exactly the defense Maya predicted.
I stood.
“Then I guess we’ll let experts decide.”
William’s smile disappeared.
“You won’t reach Friday in control of those shares.”
There it was.
I headed toward the door.
Then he said:
“Ask Jonathan why he had a second passport before the plane ever crashed.”
I stopped.
William watched me.
“Ask him where he planned to take you.”
I turned.
“He was preparing to disappear long before anyone threatened him.”
For the first time, doubt touched me.
William noticed.
He smiled again.
“Your father isn’t the hero in this story, Emma.”
I opened the door.
“No.”
I looked back at him.
“But neither are you.”
Outside, Maya was waiting in the elevator with federal agents two floors below.
The recording had captured everything.
But when I reached the lobby, my father was gone.
On the seat of his rental car was a note.
May you like
Emma, William told you about the passport.
I should have told you first.
