Chapter 3 - Olivia’s Return
Nathan flew to New York that night.
He did not ask Emma to come.
He did not suggest she hide.
He simply told her he would find out who had exposed her medical history.
Before leaving, he gave her the direct number of a security consultant unaffiliated with Whitmore Global.
“Only if you want it.”
Emma took the card.
“Thank you.”
Nathan nodded.
Then he left.
By eight the next morning, he was seated in a conference room forty-two floors above Manhattan.
Douglas Mercer sat across from him.
Whitmore Global’s general counsel, Helen Price, sat beside Douglas.
Two crisis-management executives occupied the remaining chairs.
Nathan remained standing.
“Why was Olivia Grant in this building?”
Douglas sighed.
“She was asked to consult.”
“By whom?”
“The board.”
“You hired someone I fired?”
“You removed her from the foundation.”
“I removed her from every Whitmore organization.”
Douglas leaned back.
“You did that after an emotional personal crisis.”
Nathan’s eyes hardened.
“My marriage collapsing was not authorization for you to reverse my decision.”
“This is bigger than your marriage.”
Nathan placed the Oregon article on the table.
“My wife’s miscarriages are mentioned in that story.”
Nobody answered.
Nathan looked at Helen.
“Who knew?”
Helen hesitated.
“Several people.”
“Names.”
“Nathan.”
“Names.”
She listed five executives.
Then two members of his personal staff.
Then a former communications director.
Olivia had worked closely with every one of them.
Douglas finally spoke.
“Olivia contacted us after reporters started asking questions.”
“How did reporters know?”
“That’s what we’re determining.”
Nathan stared at him.
“You let her walk back in because she offered to solve a crisis she may have created.”
Douglas’s expression tightened.
“That is speculation.”
The door opened.
Olivia entered.
Nobody had warned Nathan.
She wore a charcoal suit and carried a leather folder.
For a moment, the old familiarity hit him.
Chicago airports.
Donor dinners.
Late-night cars.
Conference rooms.
The thousand small ways he had allowed her into spaces Emma should have occupied.
Then he remembered Emma standing alone in the ballroom.
Olivia stopped.
“Nathan.”
“Why are you here?”
“The board requested my help.”
“I’m asking why.”
Olivia looked around.
“Can we speak privately?”
“No.”
Something flickered across her face.
She placed the folder on the table.
“I didn’t leak Emma’s pregnancy.”
Nathan said nothing.
“That’s what you think.”
“I think you knew about the article before I did.”
Olivia’s silence answered more than words.
Nathan leaned forward.
“How?”
“A reporter contacted me.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“What time?”
She hesitated.
Nathan saw it.
“Before I arrived in Oregon.”
Olivia looked toward Douglas.
Nathan laughed once.
“Unbelievable.”
“Nathan, I was protecting you.”
“From my wife?”
“From the narrative.”
He stared at her.
“My wife is not a narrative.”
Olivia’s voice dropped.
“She left you.”
“I gave her reasons to.”
“You’re really going to destroy everything you built because she decided to punish you?”
Nathan stepped closer.
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“I’m finally refusing to destroy my family to protect everything I built.”
Olivia opened the folder.
“There are things Emma doesn’t know.”
Nathan froze.
Olivia removed a stack of printed messages.
“You want accountability?”
She placed them in front of him.
“Then perhaps she should know what you were saying to me while she was home waiting.”
Nathan recognized his own number immediately.
The first message had been sent eighteen months earlier.
Sometimes you’re the only person who understands why I don’t want to go home yet.
Nathan felt sick.
Olivia met his eyes.
“You want the truth exposed?”
May you like
She pushed the pages toward him.
“Expose all of it.”
