Chapter 6: What Robert Did Next
The message wasn't from Robert directly.
Alexander's solicitor, a quiet man named Graham Fitch, confirmed that within twenty-four hours.
"It came from a number registered to a company called Aldermoor Consulting," Graham told us over the phone.
"That company has one director.
Your father-in-law."
"Is that a threat?" I asked.
"It's worded carefully enough to avoid being one legally.
But yes.
That's what it is."
Robert moved fast.
By the following morning, he had called Alexander's employer — a property development firm where Alexander had worked for eleven years — and suggested, in a friendly conversation with the managing director, that Alexander had been behaving erratically and that the family had concerns about his judgment.
Alexander found out from a colleague who overheard the call.
He came home and told me standing in the hallway, still in his coat.
"He called Martin directly," Alexander said.
"Martin told him it was a personal matter and ended the call.
But he told me about it because he thought I should know."
"He's trying to isolate you," I said.
"Yes."
"He's trying to make you look unstable before Diana's statement goes anywhere."
"Yes." Alexander took off his coat.
"He's also called my aunt Patricia.
She rang me an hour ago.
She said Dad told her I'd had some kind of breakdown at the wedding and that you'd caused a scene and embarrassed the family."
I sat down on the stairs.
"What did Patricia say?"
"She said she was worried about me and that maybe I should take some time away from — and I'm quoting again — *outside influences.*"
"She means me."
"She means you."
I pressed my hands against my face for a moment.
Then I dropped them.
"Where is Diana's statement now?"
"Graham submitted it this morning to the investigative authority that handled Gerald Whitmore's case.
Along with the video.
Along with a formal complaint about the incident at the wedding." He sat down on the step beside me.
"It's out of our hands now.
It moves at their pace."
"And in the meantime, your father keeps making calls."
"Yes."
Lily appeared at the top of the stairs in her pyjamas, holding a stuffed rabbit by one ear.
"Daddy, are you sad?"
"No, sweetheart." He reached up and she came down two steps and climbed into his lap without being asked.
"I'm just thinking."
"About what?"
"About doing the right thing."
She considered this seriously.
"Grandma always says the right thing is the hard thing."
Alexander looked at me over her head.
"Your grandma," he said carefully, "is right about that."
His phone rang.
He checked the screen and his expression changed.
"It's Robert," he said.
He answered it on speaker.
"I know you've spoken to Diana Marsh." Robert's voice was controlled but something underneath it had shifted.
"I know you've given her access to your solicitor.
I want you to understand what you've just done."
"Tell me," Alexander said.
"You've made an enemy of the one person who could protect you.
Everything you have — the house, the car, Lily's school fees — it runs through structures I built.
I can dismantle every one of them legally, inside a week."
"Then dismantle them," Alexander said.
A pause.
"Don't be a fool," Robert said.
"You have a child."
"I know I have a child," Alexander said.
"She was in her mother's arms when you pushed them both into a fountain.
Don't talk to me about my child."
The line went quiet for three full seconds.
"You'll regret this," Robert said.
"Maybe," Alexander said.
"But not as much as you will."
He ended the call.
Lily looked up at him.
"Was that Grandpa Robert?"
"Yes."
"He doesn't sound very nice."
May you like
"No," Alexander said.
"He isn't."
