Chapter 5: The Offer
We were back at the hotel by nine o'clock.
Lily was asleep in the travel cot before her head touched the mattress.
Alexander stood at the window, still in his dress shirt, jacket gone, looking out at the car park below.
His phone rang at nine-fourteen.
He looked at the screen.
Set it face-down on the windowsill.
It rang out.
It rang again immediately.
He picked it up.
"Dad."
I stayed on my side of the room and listened to one half of the conversation.
"I'm not interested in your explanation tonight." A pause.
"No.
I watched the video." Another pause, longer.
"Don't do that.
Don't make this about her." His voice stayed flat.
"I said no."
He ended the call.
"He wants to meet tomorrow," Alexander said.
"He says he has things to explain.
Things about our finances that I don't understand."
"Do you want to go?"
"No." He turned from the window.
"But I think I need to."
He went alone the next morning.
I asked him to take someone with him — a friend, a solicitor, anyone.
He said his father would see that as an escalation.
I said his father had already escalated.
He kissed me on the forehead and left.
He was back by noon.
He sat down at the kitchen table of our rented room and put a folded piece of paper in front of me.
"He had this prepared," Alexander said.
"He brought it to the meeting."
I unfolded it.
It was a financial summary.
Properties, accounts, trust structures.
Alexander's name appeared in several places — not as an owner, but as a beneficiary, contingent on conditions I had to read twice to understand.
"He controls the trust until he dies," Alexander said.
"Or until he chooses to transfer it.
The conditions for transfer include — and I'm quoting — *demonstrated commitment to the stability and reputation of the Harmon family.*"
"Which means what, exactly?"
"Which means, according to him, that you are a liability." Alexander's voice was careful and even.
"He said if I remove you from the picture, the trust transfers immediately.
Full value.
He said the number is enough that we would never need to work again."
I set the paper down.
"And if you don't?"
"He cuts me out entirely.
Gives it to a charitable foundation he controls.
Says he'll make sure I never see a penny of what his father built." Alexander looked at me.
"He also said Diana Marsh is unstable.
That she's been making accusations for years.
That no one has ever taken her seriously and no one will now."
"Is that true?"
"I don't know.
Maybe partly." He folded his hands on the table.
"He was very calm about it.
That was the worst part.
He laid it all out like a business proposal."
I looked at the paper between us.
"What did you tell him?"
Alexander reached across the table and turned the paper face-down.
"I told him I'd think about it," he said.
"Because I needed to come home first and tell you everything.
And because I wanted him to believe he still had time."
"Does he?"
Alexander looked at me steadily.
"I called Diana from the car park before I drove back," he said.
"I gave her the name of our solicitor.
I told her to share everything she has."
I exhaled slowly.
"He's going to find out," I said.
"Yes," Alexander said.
"Probably by tonight."
His phone lit up on the table between us.
A message from an unknown number.
May you like
*You should have taken the offer.
This gets worse from here.*
